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Chapter 1 Notes
Chapter 1 Notes
Nature of Science
Scientific Method
What is Physics?
From the ancient Greek, phsyis nature General analysis of nature to understand how universe behaves
Working knowledge of basic math Graphing Skills SI Units and sig figs Common Sense Persistence Patience
Precision
The repeatability of a number Also refers to the smallest unit of measurement an instrument can give How close a measurement is to the true value Act- Exp / Act
Accuracy
Percent Error
Significant Figures
Dry Rules
Atlantic-Pacific Method
Non-Zero Digits Zeros between sig figs Zeros right of decimal Zeros as placeholders Blah, blah blah
The SI stands for "Systeme International. There are 3 fundamental SI units for LENGTH, MASS, and TIME. Other quantities are derived. Other base units are shown
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Prefixes are added to units to define multiples of ten You should know giga down to nano
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Example
If a capacitor is labeled 2.5mF(microFarads), how would it be labeled in just Farads?
The FARAD is the fundamental unit used for capacitors.
2.5 x 10-6 F
Notice that we just add the factor on the end and use the root unit.
The radio station XL106.7 transmits at a frequency of 106.7 x 106 Hertz. How would it be written in MHz (MegaHertz)?
A HERTZ is the fundamental unit used for frequency.
106.7 MHz
a a2 + b2 = c2
Graphing Rules
Independent variable is x-axis Dependent variable is y-axis Label everything! Units and scale! We will learn to use Excel