III.

INTRODUCTION TO MEASUREMENT

I.1 MEASUREMENT

A. CLASSIFYING KNOWLEDGE IN CHEMISTRY

 Observation
 Direct form of knowledge that comes one of the five senses (something you saw, smelled, taste,
heard, or felt.
 Types of observation:
1) Qualitative Observation
 Use your senses
 Descriptive details about an observation.
 May include about color, shape, texture, sound, taste, feel, etc
2) Quantitative Observation
 Are made with instruments such as rulers, balances, graduated cylinders, beakers, and
thermometers.
 These results are measurable.
 Details about observation that quantify the observation using numbers.
 Examples: measurement, quantity, etc.

B. ACCURACY AND PRECISION

 Accuracy
 Is the degree of closeness of the measurement to the target or ref. value.
 Often referred as Bias error.
 Is measuring near the target or true or ref. value
 Precision
 Is the degree of closeness of the measurements with each other
 Often referred as Repeatabilty and Reproducibilty error.
 Is getting consistent results of repeated measurements.

C. MEASUREMENT
 Collection of quantitative data
 Made by comparing an unknown quantity with a standard unit
 Example:
 The length of a piece of string can be measured by comparing the string against a meter stick.
 Every measurement is composed of a number and a unit.

D. SYSTEMS OF MEASUREMENT
 ENGLISH SYSTEM
 most commonly used in the US.
 Disadvantage: units are not systematically related to each other and require memorization.
 English System Units:
 LENGTH: Inch, Foot, Yard, Mile
  WEIGHT: Ounce, Pound, Ton
 MASS: Slug
 VOLUME: Cup, Quart, Gallon, Cubic Foot, Cubic Yard
 DENSITY: Lb/ft3
 SPEED OR VELOCITY: miles per hour
 TEMPERATURE: Fahrenheit
 METRIC (SI)
 used by the scientist around the world. Adopted from the French name Le Systeme Internationale
d’ Unites
 LENGTH
 Measurement of anything from end to end
 How long an object is
 The basis of length units for the metric system is the meter.

 1 inch = 2.54 centimeters = 25.4 millimeters

 1 foot = 30.48 centimeters

 1 yard = 0.91 meters

 1 mile = 1.6 kilometers

 1 millimeter = 0.04 inches

 1 centimeter = .39 inches = 0.0325 feet

 1 meter = 3.28 feet

 1 kilometer = 0.62 miles

 MASS AND WEIGHT

 Mass and weight are not the same thing. Although we often use the interchangeably, each one has a
specific definition and usage.
 Mass
 measure of the amount of matter in an object. The mass of an object is independent of its
location. The basic unit form mass is kilogram (kg) .
 Weight
 force of attraction between the object and the earth’s gravity. The weight of an object can
vary from place to place and changes with its location on the Earth.

 TIME
 Interval between two occurrences. The basic unit for time is second.
 1 minute (60 seconds)
 1 hour (60 minutes, or 3,600 seconds)
 1 day (24 hours, or 86,400 seconds)
 1 week (7 days, or 604,800 seconds)
 1 month (28-31 days, or 2,419,200-
 2,678.400 seconds)
 1 year (about 365.25 days, or about 31,557,600 seconds)

 TEMPERATURE
 Measure of how hot or cold an object is. The basic unit for temperature is Kelvin.

 CONVERTING UNITS: USING THE FACTOR-LABEL METHOD

 A conversion factor
  is a term that converts a quantity in one unit to a quantity in another unit.
 The conversion factor must relate the two quantities in questions.
 The conversion factor must cancel out the unwanted unit.
 Factor-label method
 is the process of using conversion factors to convert a quantity in one unit to a quantity in
another unit.

 AREA
 amount of two-dimensional space taken up by an object
 the size of a surface
 Area of rectangle(A) = length(l) x width(w)
 Area of circle (A)= π × r2

 VOLUME
 Measure of the amount of space inside of a solid figure, like a cube, ball, cylinder, or pyramid.

 DENSITY
 Mass per unit volume

E. SCIENTIFIC NOTATION
 Scientific notation is a way of expressing really big numbers or really small numbers.
 Scientific Notation always has two parts:
 N is the coefficient ( A number between 1 and 9.9999…)
 X is an exponent, which can be any positive or negative whole number.

F. SIGNIFICANT FIGURES
 Number of significant digits that implies the accuracy of measurement

G. DETERMINING THE NUMBER OF SIGNIFICANT FIGURES

 RULES:
1. All nonzero digits are significant.
2. Zeros between two nonzero digits are significant.
3. Leading zeros are not significant.
4. Trailing zeros in a number containing a decimal point are significant
5. The trailing zeros in which decimal point is not given/placed indicated that zero/s is/are not significant.