Physical Quantities

&
Units
Subjects

1. The expression of physical quantities

2. 7 base physical quantities and their SI unit

3. Prefixes and unit conversion

4. Derived quantities

5. Significant digits
What are Physical Quantities ?

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How heavy is it?

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w hen it fa
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What is the average mass of an apple?

150 grams ( 150 g )

Magnitude
(numerical value) × Unit

Product of a number and a unit

7 base physical quantities

Mass
Length
Time
Electric current
Temperature
Amount of substance
Luminous intensity
Standard International (SI) Unit of 7 Base Quantities
Why we need the SI units ?

The story goes …

Why we need the SI units ?

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Located in Paris France

Bureau International des Poids et Mesures

(The International Bureau of Weights and Measures)
国际计量局
http://www.bipm.org

The task of the BIPM is to ensure world-wide

uniformity of measurements and their traceability to
the International System of Units (SI).

standard international unit

International Prototype 国际原器
The definition of meter

The metre is the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum

during a time interval of 1/299 792 458 of a second.

international prototype of the meter

The definition of kilogram
The kilogram is the unit of mass; it is equal to the mass of the
international prototype of the kilogram.

 international prototype of the kilogram

Sometimes , the object is too big !
For example : Diameter of galaxy • Ten to the power of twenty
100,000,000,000,000,000,000m • Ten to the twentieth power
• The twentieth power of ten
Scientific Notation ： 10 m 20
• 10 to the 20
 Diameter of atom ： 0.000 000 000 1 m

• Ten to the power of minus/negative ten

Scientific
• Ten to the minus/negative tenth power
Notation
• the minus/negative tenth power of ten
10-10 m
• Ten to the minus / negative ten
(10 to the -10)
 Prefixes

A prefix added to a unit means that

the unit is multiplied by a numerical
value represented by the prefix.

We use prefixes to change the size of a unit

 Prefixes and Their Symbols

Smaller
Bigger Value Name Symbol

10-1 Deci d
Value Name Symbol
10-2 Centi c
10 3
Kilo k
10-3 Milli m
106 Mega M
10-6 Micro μ
10 9
Giga G
10-9 Nano n
10 12
Tera T
10-12 pico p
10-15 femto f
EXAMPLE

Unit Conversion

1. How many grams are there in 1 kilogram?

1 kg = 1000 g = 103 g

2. How many microseconds are there in 1 second?

1 s = 106 μs

3. Write down the following in km:

2000 m= 2 km 200 m= 0.2 km 2 ×104 m= 20 km

Diameter of
atom ：
0.1 nm

Radio frequency
：
107.9 MHz
 Hard drive
capacity ：
640 1GB
TB =(Gigabyte)
1024 GB
1 GB =1024 MB
1 MB =1024 kB
1 kB =1024 B

1 GB=1 048 576 000 B ≈ 109 B

The mass of one elephant is 5 ton

1 t = 1000 kg = 106 g = 1 Mg
 Units of Time

1 h = 60 min 1 min= 60 s
1 s=1000 ms 1 ms = 1000 μs
The second is now defined in terms of something that never changes: the
frequency of an oscillation which can occur in the nucleus of a caesium( 铯 )
atom.

Is light year a unit of time?

the distance that light travels in a vacuum in 1 year
 Base or fundamental quantities

7 base quantities ： Mass Length

Temperature Time Electric current
Amount of substance( 物质的量 )
Physical Luminous intensity （发光强度）
Quantities
Derived quantities
All other quantities can be obtained
from the multiplication or division of
base quantities.
 Mass and Amount of substance

Mass : a measure of the amount of substance in an

object .( physical ) (it’s hard to define directly)
Two effect : gravity . The greater the mass the
bigger the gravity .
the greater the mass , harder to change
it’s motion condition
Amount of substance : measures the size of an
ensemble of elementary entities .chemical amount .
 Derived Quantities

Velocity

displacement
v =
time taken

Unit ： m/s (m s-1)

or Combining Unit
km/h (km h-1)
 Volume

V= area  hight  length 3

Units ： m3 (cubic meter)

cm3 (cubic centimeter)

Other units ： L or l (liter)

mL or ml (milliliter)
1 L = 1000 mL = 1000 cm3
 Density

mass mass
ρ=  3
volume length

Unit ： g/cm3 or kg/m3

g/cm3 = 1000 kg/m3

kg m/s2 newton, N

kg /(ms2) pascal, Pa

kg m2 /s2 joule, J
 Question
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the
Sun and the largest planet in the
Solar System. It’s mean radius is
about 69900 km . It is a gas giant ,
It’s average density is 1.326
g/cm3 . Self rotation period is
9h55m30s .
What ‘s the volume , mass ,
rotation period of Jupiter ? ( SI
unit )

V=4/3*Pi*r3=1.4306×1024 m3 What about Earth ？

M=V = 1.8970×1027 kg Radius about 6371 km ，
T= 35730 s = 3.573×104 s average density
5.514g/cm³ ， rotation
period 23h56m4s .
Earth and Jupiter in The Solar System
 Applications of Units

• We can check whether one physics formula is correct or

not by check its dimensions.
example ： g has a unit
L g of m/s2
T  2 T  2
g L

• We can also guess the unit of a new quantity by checking

the dimensions on both side of the formula.

• Exercise: the resistive force F acting on a sphere of radius r moving at

speed
v through a liquid is given by F=cvr , where c is a constant , what’s the
unit of c ?
Significant Digits
When measuring, one digit is always estimated depending on
calibration. Example 14.3cm
 Non-zero digits are always significant.
22 cm (2 s.d.) and 22.3cm (3s.d.)
 With zeroes ,
1. Zeroes placed before other digits are not significant (0.046 2s.d.)
2. Zeroes placed between other digits are always significant (4009m 4s.d.)
3. Zeroes placed after other digits but behind a decimal point are significant ( 7.90s
3s.d. )
4. Zeroes at the end of a number are significant only if they are behind a
decimal point as in (3). Otherwise, it is impossible to tell if they are
significant. 8200m at least 2 s.d. but not sure ， so we use scientific
notation to place significant zeroes behind a decimal point: 8.200 ×
10 3 4s.d. 8.20 × 10 3 3s.d.
 有效数字： 从第一个非 0 的数字开始数，数到最后一位 !
 Adding/Subtracting with S.D.
• You can only add or subtract to the least precise measurement.
34.89 m
+ 6.2 m
41.09 m
41.1 m is the final answer.

We get rid of the 9 because it is added to an unknown.

Exercise: 1.6 km + 1.62 m +1200 cm

10.8 g - 8.264 g
 Multiplication and division with
S.D.
• Your answer can only have as many s.d. as the multiplier
with the least s.d.
2.34 (3 s.d)
x 1.0 (2 s.d)
2.3 is the answer, not 2.34

The same goes for division.

Exercise: 3.2145 km*4.23 km

18.21 g / 4.4 cm3