NASHIK CAMBRIDGE SCHOOL

[Affiliated to CBSE Delhi up to Sr. Sec. Level]

UNITS AND MEASUREMENT

IIT FOUNDATION
1.1 Fundamental and Derived Quantities
Physical Quantity
Any quantity which can be measured directly or indirectly or in terms of which any law of physics can be
expressed is called physical quantity. All the physical quantities can be divided in two categories:
(i) Fundamental quantities
(ii) Derived quantities

Fundamental Quantities: Those physical quantities which do not depend upon any other quantity are
called fundamental quantities e.g., mass, length and time.
(i) The fundamental quantities should be independent of each other.
(ii) All other quantities may be expressed in terms of the fundamental quantities.
(iii) It turns out that the number of fundamental quantities is only seven. All the rest may be derived from
these quantities by multiplication and division.

Derived Quantities: The physical quantities which can be derived from fundamental quantities and
depend on them are called Derived quantities e.g., velocity, acceleration, force etc.

Units
To describe any physical phenomenon, measurement of different physical quantities is essential.
Measurement of any physical quantity involves comparison with a certain basic, arbitrarily chosen,
internationally accepted reference standard called unit.

(i) The unit of a physical quantity is that fixed and definite quantity which is taken to be our reference
standard to measure it.
(ii) The magnitude of a physical quantity is given by the product of unit (u) selected to measure it and the
number (n) of times, that unit is contained in the given quantity i.e.,n × u = constant

Units are classified into two categories:

(a) Fundamental or Base units.
(b) Derived units

Fundamental or Base Units: The units for the fundamental or base quantities are called fundamental or
base units. The units of all other physical quantities can be expressed as a combination of the base units.
The fundamental units have following properties:
(i) They are well defined.
(ii) They do not vary with time, temperature, place, pressure, etc.
(iii) They are easily accessible.
(iv) They should be easily convertible.
Derived Units: The units of derived quantities are called derived units. The derived units can be derived
from the fundamental units e.g., speed is m s-1and acceleration is m s-2.

1.2 The International System of Units

In 1971, the 14th General Conference on Weights and Measures picked seven quantities as base quantities,
thereby forming the basis of the International System of Units, abbreviated SI from its French name and
popularly known as the metric system. In SI, there are seven base units and two supplementary units.

Abbreviations in powers of 10.

10. Other Systems of Units.
Following are the commonly used other system of units :
(i) C.G.S. System of Units. This system of units was set up in France. In this system centimeter,
gram and second are choosen as basic units oflength, mass and time respectively.
(ii) F.P.S. System. It is also known as British system of units. In this system foot, scientists name
have initial capital pound and second are choosen as basic units of length, mass and time
respectively.
(iii) M.K.S. System. In this system metre, kilogram and second are choosen as basic not written
with capital initial units of length, mass and time respectively.

11. Definitions of S.I. or Basic Units.

(I) Units of Length. SI unit of length is metre (m). One metre is equal to 1650763·73 wavelengths
in vacuum of a radiation emitted due to transition between the levels of 2p10 and 5d5 isotope of
krypton which has mass number 86. The light emitted by Kr–86 for this transition has wavelength
6507·8021 Å. The number of these wavelengths in 1 m can be counted by using an optical
interferometer.

Some of bigger units are:

(i) 1 astromomical unit = 1AU (average distance of the sun form the earth = 1.496 × 1011 m
(ii) 1 light year = 1 ly = 9.46 × 1015 m (distance that light travel with velocity of 3 × 108 ms–1 in
1 year)
(iii) 1 parsec = 3.08 × 1016 m (parsec is the distance at which average radius of earth' orbit subtends
an angle of 1 arc second).
(iv) "Cubit" was taken as the units of length of the arm from elbow to the tip of the middle finger of a
normal man and was taken to be about 10–1 m.

(II) Units of Mass. It is defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the Planck constant h to be 6.626
070 15 x 10–34 when expressed in the unit J s, which is equal to kg m2 s–1, where the metre and the
second are defined in terms of c and ΔνCs.

Some other units of mass are:

Smaller units of measurement of mass are: (i) 1 kg = 103 g = 0.0685 slug
(i) 1 gram = 10–3 kg (ii) 1 g = 6.85 × 10–5 slug
(ii) 1 centigram = 10–5 kg or 10–2 g (iii) 1 slug = 14.59 kg
(iii) 1 milligram = 10–6 kg or 10–3 g (iv) 1 u = 1.661 × 10–27 kg
(iv) 1 microgram = 10–9 kg or 10–6 g (v) 1 quintal = 102 kg
(vi) 1 metric ton = 103 kg

(III) Units of Time. It is the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of duration corresponding to the
transitions between two hyperfine levels of Cs–133 atom in ground state.
A solar day is defined as time that elapses between two moons of two consecutive days and the
average solar day is the mean of the solar days in a complete one year and the second is 1
86400 th part of a average solar day.

(IV) Kelvin (K). It is defined as the 273.16 of the thermodynamic temperature of triple point of
water.

(V) Ampere (A). It is defined as the constant current that when flows between two parallel infinite
straight conductors of negligible area of cross–section held one metre apart in vacuum, produces
a force of 2 × 10–7 N per metre of their length.

(VI) Luminous Intensity or Candela (Cd) : One candela is the luminous intensity, in a given
direction, of a source that emits monocromatic radiation of frequency 540 × 1012 hertz and has
radiant intensity in that direction of 1/683 watt per steradian.

(VII) Mole. It is defined as the amount of substance containing the same number of atoms, molecules
or ions etc. as there are atoms in 0·012 kg of C–12 isotope.
(VIII) Supplementary units and their definitions: In addition to the above mentioned seven basic

units, two supplementary units are also used in SI. They are a follows:
(a) The unit of plane angle called the 'radian'. It is the plane angle between the two radii of a circle
which cut off on the circumference, an arc equal to the length of the radius.

(b) The unit of solid angle is called the 'steradian'. It is the solid angle with its apex at the centre of
a sphere that cuts out an area on the surface of the sphere equal to the area of the square whose
sides are equal to the radius of the sphere.
15. Principle of Homogeneity. It states that for a correct physical relation dimensions of each term on
left hand side must be equal to dimensions of each term on right hand side. This means that terms
containing like dimensions can be added or subtracted. Or
Principle of homogeneity means that only the quantities of like nature can be added, subtracted,
compared or equated.
16. Significant Digits.
The number of digits whose value is accurately known in a measurement plus one
additional digit about which we are not certain are called significant digits. The larger the number of
significant digits the more is the accuracy of measurement.

Rules:
(i) All non–zero digits are significant e.g. 263 has 3 significant digits.
(ii) All zeros between 2 non–zero digits are significant e.g. 303 has 3 significant digits.
(iii) All zeros to the right of decimal and left of non–zero digit are never significant e.g. 0·0034 has 2
significant digits when number is less than 1.
(iv) All zeros to the right of decimal and right of non–zero digit are significant e.g. 0·3400 has 4
significant digits.
(v) All zeros on the right of non–zero digit are not significant 760 has 2 significant digits.
(vi) All zeros to the right of non–zero digit are significant if they come from some measurement e.g.
760 m has 3 significant digits.
(vii) Powers of 10 are not significant e.g. 3·6 × 106 cm has 2 significant digits.
(viii) While changing the measurement from one system to another system, the number. of significant
digits should not change e.g. 2 m = 2 × 102 cm has 1 significant digits and not 200 cm which has
3 significant digits.
(ix) While adding or subtracting the measurements, the result will retain only that many decimal
places which are minimum in any observation.
(x) During multiplication and division the result will contain that many significant digits which are
minimum in any measurement.

1. A measuring cylinder contains V1 ml of water in it. When a heavy body A is immersed in it, the
water level becomes V2. When a body B is tied with A and both are completely immersed in water, the
level comes to V3. Observe the values V1, V2, V3 from the figure and find out the volume of B.

( Homi Bhabha BalVaidnyanik Examination 2012 )

a) 22 ml b) 31ml c) 8 ml d) 9 ml

2. What is the unit of energy in SI system?

(A) Joule (B) Newton (C) Calorie (D) Kilocalorie

3. Inner volume of a cup is 150 ml. and its outer volume is 175 ml. What is the Capacity of that cup?

( Homi Bhabha BalVaidnyanik Examination 2014 )

(a) 225 ml (b) 25 ml (c) 150 ml (d) 175 ml

4. A clock has lost its minute-hand and secondhand as shown in the figure. What minimum time can be
measured with this clock accurately? ( Homi Bhabha BalVaidnyanik Examination 2014 )

(a) 1 hour (b) 1 minute (c) 5 minutes (d) 12 minutes

5. Adjacent figures show two conditions of the same spring balance. Observe it and find the mass of the hung
object. ( Homi Bhabha BalVaidnyanik Examination 2014 )

(a) 30 g (b) 34 g (c) 31 g (d) 26 g

6. Body temperature of a healthy human is 37 °C. What will be this temperature in Fahrenheit ?
( Homi Bhabha BalVaidnyanik Examination 2014 )

(a) 90.4 °F (b) 94 °F (c) 98.4 °F (d) 101 °F

7. . Among the following, which physical quantity has no unit?

( Homi Bhabha BalVaidnyanik Examination 2016 )

a) Upthrust b) Gravitation c) Specific gravity d) Density

8. What is the unit of energy in SI system?

( Homi Bhabha BalVaidnyanik Examination 2016 )

(A) Joule (B) Newton (C) Calorie (D) Kilocalorie

9. Arrange the following lengths in their increasing magnitude:

1 metre, 1 centimetre, 1 kilometre, 1 millimetre.

(A) 1 centimetre < 1 millimetre < 1 kilometre < 1 metre

(B) 1 millimetre < 1 centimetre < 1 metre < 1 kilometre

(C) 1 kilometre < 1 metre < 1 centimetre < 1 millimetre

(D) none

10. What is the area of rectangular graph paper having 6cm length and 5cm width ?

(A) 11 cm2 (B) 1 cm2 (C) 30 cm2 (D) 60 cm2 .

11. When a stone is lowered into a measuring cylinder containing water, the volume becomes 9.3 ml. If
the volume of the stone is 5.8 ml, find the initial volume of water in the measuring cylinder.

(A) 3.5 ml (B) 5 ml (C) 6.5 ml (D) 8.5 ml