APPLYING MEASUREMENTS

IN PHYSICS
for GENERAL PHYSICS 1/ Grade 12
Quarter 1/ Week 1

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 FOREWORD

This learning kit will serve as your guide into an in-depth

understanding of measurements in Physics. Physicists make observations
and ask basic questions like how big is an object? How much mass does
it have? How far did it travel? To answer these questions, you need to
make measurements with various instruments. There is a great deal in
the usefulness of measurements in daily life.

The topics herein include solving measurement problems involving

conversion of units and expression of measurements in scientific
notation and differentiating accuracy and precision. When making
careful measurements, the goal is to reduce as many sources of error
as possible and to keep track of those errors that cannot be eliminated.
Thus, it is useful to know the types of errors that may occur, so that we
may recognize them when they arise. In understanding vectors, you are
expected to distinguish a vector from a scalar quantity and perform addition
of vectors.

This learning kit is carefully prepared with set of activities guided with
contextualized discussions and illustrations that meet the standards of the K
to 12 Curriculum. In using this learning kit, you will realize that physics is a
boundless discipline because it covers almost everything man can imagine.
The activities included herein are simple, readily understandable, and easy
to do. In doing so, you will be given opportunity to broaden your
knowledge and enhance your resourcefulness and creativity in
performing activities provided. This will enable you to develop your critical
thinking skills. The Mathematics involved is simple and does not require
you to be Math wizards to fit into analyses. It is hoped that your
understanding of the basic concepts will benefit you in many ways and the
skills you acquired in using this kit may help you in dealing with practical
problems.

You are expected to learn from this kit and use this with utmost care
while learning from the discussions and tasks which you can apply in
your everyday activities. Everyone is capable of learning Physics
especially if one takes advantage of one’s unique way of learning.

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OBJECTIVES
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
K: identify experimental errors and how to estimate errors from multiple measurem
S: solve measurement problems involving conversion of units and expression of meas
: demonstrate how to add vectors graphically and by component method; and
A: explain the importance of measurements in daily life.

LEARNING COMPETENCIES

Solve measurement problems involving conversion of units and

expression of measurements in scientific notation (STEM_GP12EU-Ia1).

Differentiate accuracy from precision (STEM_GP12EU-Ia2).

Differentiate random errors from systematic errors (STEM_GP12EU-Ia-3).

Estimate errors from multiple measurements of a physical quantity using

variance (STEM_GP12EU-Ia-5).

Differentiate vector and scalar quantities (STEM_GP12V-Ia-8).

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I. WHAT HAPPENED
Hi! My name is Rio. I will also be
learning with you as we do
the activities and tasks this
week. We are here to help
you learn so allow us to help
you in completing different
Hello STEMates! activities we will meet along
Welcome to Physics the way
Classroom. How are
you today? By the Can we expect a full blast of
way, I am Nairobi. I energy and active
will help you learn participation from you?
about
measurements.

That’s good to hear.

Come and let us
join hands in
learning
measurements. Let’s
begin this with an
activity! Are you
ready?

SET B, please answer. I’ll check this next week.

Let’s test your stock knowledge!

A. Writing Numbers in Different Ways

Directions: Read the statements and write the numbers in scientific

notation on the space provided before each item.
1. The population of the world is about 7,117,000,000.
2. The distance from Earth to the Sun is about 92,960,000 miles.
3. The human body contains approximately 60,000,000,000,000
or more cells.
4. The mass of a particle of dust is 0.000000000753 kg.
5. The length of the shortest wavelength of visible light (violet)
is 0.0000004 meters.

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 Directions: Convert the following measurements. Write your solution on the
space provided. Do this in your Science Notebook/Answer Sheet.

6. 586 cm = m

7. 4.28 m = mm

8. 1396 mg = kg

9. 1375L = kL

10. 12g = cg

B. Sorting Out Vectors and Scalars (Assignment: SET A AND B, please answer)

Directions: Complete the data table below by sorting out the

quantities into scalar and vector. Write the words in their appropriate boxes.
Do this in your Science notebook/Activity Sheet.

Force Mass Distance Density Velocity

Acceleration Speed Direction
Temperature Time

Scalar Vector

II. WHAT I NEED TO KNOW

DISCUSSION

Scientific Notation
Scientific notation offers a convenient way of expressing very large
or very small numbers. A positive number is written as a product of a
number between I and l0 and a power of 10. For example, 9.63 x 107 and 2.3
x 10-6 are numbers written in scientific notation.

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 Standard notation to scientific notation

Convert each number to scientific notation:

a. 580,000,000,000m b. 0.000068g

Solution:
a. Determine the power of l0 by counting the number of places that
the decimal must move so that there is a single nonzero digit to the
left of the decimal point (11 places). Since 580,000,000,000 is larger
than 10, we use a positive power of 10:
580,000,000,000m = 5.8 x 1011m
b. Determine the power of l0 by counting the number of places the
decimal must move so that there is a single nonzero digit to the left
of the decimal point (five places). Since 0.0000683 is smaller than
1, we use a negative power of l0:
0.0000683g = 6.83x10-5g

Using Scientific Notation in Computations

A. (4 𝑥 1013)(5 𝑥 10−9)

(4 𝑥 1013)(5 𝑥 10−9) = 20 𝑥 1013+ −9) Product rule for exponents

= 20 𝑥 104 Simplify the exponent
= 20 𝑥 101 𝑥 104 Write 20 in scientific notation
= 20 𝑥 105 Product for exponents

B. 1.2 𝑥 10−9
4 𝑥 10−7

1.2 𝑥 10−9 = 1.2 Quotient rule for exponents

4 𝑥 10−7 4
= 0.3 𝑥 10−2 Simplify the exponent
= 3 𝑥 10−3 Use 0.3 = 3 x 10-1

A. To convert 56 nm to meters, multiply: 56 𝑛𝑚 𝑥 1𝑚 = 5.6 𝑥 10−8𝑚

109 𝑛𝑚
B. To convert 2.45 cm to µm, multiply: 2.45 𝑐𝑚 𝑥 1 𝑚 𝑥 106𝑚 = 2.45 𝑥 104𝜇𝑚
102𝑐𝑚 1 𝑚

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 Accuracy and Precision
Two key aspects of the reliability of measurement outcomes are
accuracy and precision. These terms are often used and even defined
synonymously. By contrast, these terms are consistently differentiated in the
literature of engineering and the “hard sciences”.
Accuracy

It refers to the closeness of the measurements to the true or

accepted value. A new spring balance is likely to be more accurate than
an old spring balance that has been used many times.

Figure 1. The accuracy of hits on the dartboards

Precision

It refers to the closeness of the measurements of the results to

each other. A physicist who frequently carries out a complex experiment is
likely to have more precise results than someone who is just learning the
experiment.

Figure 2. The precision of hits on the dartboards

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 There are certain factors affecting the precision and accuracy of a
measurement. These are a.) measuring device used, b.) manner of
measurement, and c.) condition of the environment during measurement.

Degree of Accuracy and Precision

The center of the bull’s-eye represents the accepted value. The

closer a dart is to a bull’s-eye, the more accurate the throwing of the
dart. The closer the darts are to each other, the more precise the throws.

High accuracy and precision High accuracy; Low precision

Low accuracy; High precision Low accuracy and precision

It would be impossible to make a very precise measurement

because the instrument is very sensitive but have that same
measurement be inaccurate because the instrument was uncalibrated or
you made a wrong reading.

The precision of an instrument is limited by the smallest division on the

measurement scale while the accuracy of an instrument depends on how
well its performance compares to a currently accepted value.

Experimental Errors

All experimental uncertainty is due to either random errors or

systematic errors. Random errors are statistical fluctuations (in either
direction) in the measured data due to the precision limitations of the
measurement device.

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