Topic 1 - Measurement and Speed

Significant figures
When we get a long decimal answer on a calculator, we round it off to a certain number of
decimal places.
Another method of giving an approximated answer is to round off using significant figures.
The word significant means: having meaning.
With the number 368249, the 3 is the most significant digit, because it tells us that the
number is 3 hundred thousand and something. It follows that the 6 is the next most
significant, and so on.
With the number 0.0000058763, the 5 is the most significant digit, because it tells us that
the number is 5 millionths and something. The 8 is the next most significant, and so on.
Be careful with numbers such as 30245, the 3 is the first significant figure and 0 the second,
because of its value as a place holder.
We round off a number using a certain number of significant figures. The most common are
1, 2 or 3 significant figures.
Remember the rules for rounding up:
 If the next number is 5 or more, we round up.
 If the next number is 4 or less, we do not round up.

Example
5.3846574
Round to 2 significant figures
5.4

Units
Without units, much of our work as physicists would be meaningless. We need to express
our thoughts clearly and units give meaning to the numbers we calculate.
Depending on the prefix we use, the numbers are different (e.g. 3.8 m and 3800 mm
actually represent the same length).
The following table shows common prefixes used in physics:

Example
1 kilometre = 1000 metres = 103m = 1km
 Speed, distance and time
The speed of an object tells you how fast or slow it is moving. You can find the average
speed of an object if you know:

 The distance travelled

 the time taken to travel that distance
You can calculate average speed using this equation:

Average speed = total distance travelled ÷ total time taken

Units
Speed has many different possible units but it is most commonly measured in m/s or
km/h
You may find the following triangle helpful when you need to rearrange the equation for
average speed:

Example
What is the average speed of a runner who covers
100m in 10s?
Average Speed = D/T = 100/10 = 10 m/s

Example
A car covers 2km in 100 s. What is its average speed?
2km = 2000m
Speed = D/T = 2000/100 = 20m/s
Distance-time graphs
 A distance-time graph is a useful way to represent the motion of an object. It shows how
the distance travelled by an object varies over time.

On a distance-time graph:

 distance travelled is plotted on the vertical (y) axis

 time taken is plotted on the horizontal (x) axis

The gradient of the line is equal to the speed. This means that the line is:

 horizontal for a stationary object (because the distance stays the same)
 a straight diagonal line for an object moving at a constant speed
The steeper the line, the greater the gradient and the greater the speed.

If the distance-time graph is a curve, as the gradient is not constant, we know that the
object is either accelerating (speeding up) or decelerating (slowing down):