Unit-2

Physical quantities
 2.1 Physical quantities
 What is physical quantity means?
 What are the devise that you uses to measure your balance and height?
 If Someone asks the time and you Saying that the time is 6 o'clock. How you
know?
 Definition
Physical quantity:- is any physical property that can be quantified and can be measured using numbers.
 Quantities that can be measured directly or indirectly.
 The measured values of physical quantities are described in terms of number and unit.
Examples:- mass, amount of substance,
length, time, temperature, volume, light intensity, force etc.
 Classification of Physical Quantities
In case of measurement PHYSICAL QUANTITY

Fundamental physical
Derived physical quantities.
quantities

AND

In case of magnitude and direction PHYSICAL QUANTITY

SCALAR QUANTITIES VECTORE QUANTITIES

 PHYSICAL QUANTITY

FUNDAMENTAL PHYSICAL
QUANTITIES Derived physical quantities.

MASS
SPEED

LENGTH
VOLUME
TIME
FORCE
CURRENT
ACCELERATION
TEMPERATURE
WORK
Amount Of Substance
PRESSURE
Luminous Intensity
 FUNDAMENTAL PHYSICAL QUANTITIES
 are physical quantities which can be measured directly.
 They cannot be described in terms of other physical quantities.
 It does not depend on any other unit.

Basic physical Symbol Basic unit Symbol

quantities
Length meter m
Mass m Kilogram Kg
Time t Second S
Temperature T Kelvin K
Current I Ampere A
Amount of n Mole Mol
substance
Luminous intensity Iv candela cd

basic physical quantities with their units and symbol

 DERIVED PHYSICAL QUANTITIES.
 Physical quantities which depend on one or more fundamental quantities for their
measurements.
DRIVED
The units of derivedSymbol
QUANTITIES quantities which depend on fundamental
Formula units
unite Symbol of unit

Speed

density

Acceleration

Force F mass Newton(N)

Work W force Joule (J)

Pressure P Pascal (Pa)

 PHYSICAL QUANTITY

SCALAR QUANTITIES VECTORE QUANTITIES

 A scalar quantity is a physical quantity
which has only magnitude.
Example:-distance, mass, time, temperature,
energy etc.
A vector quantity is a physical quantity which has
both magnitude and direction.
A vector can be represented by a single letter in
bold face or by a single letter with arrow head on it.
Like
Examples: displacement, acceleration, force, etc.
Exercise:
1, derived quantities can be expressed in the form of-
a, basic quantities b, physical quantity
c, non measurable quantities d, all the above
2, What is the density of water in SI units.
a, 100g b, 1000kg/meter square c, 1000kg/meter cube d, none
 2.2 Scales, Standards, Units (prefixes)
Based on your observation discuss the traditional and commonly
used scales and units of measurement for length, mass, time, volume
and temperature?

Traditional time
Wight balance
 Scales
Scale is a set of numbers that help to measure or quantify objects. Or
Scale is an ordered system of numbering or indexing that is used as a reference standard in
measurement, in which each number corresponds to some physical quantity.
 Nominal scale

Ordinal scales
Scale types/level
of measurement Interval scales

Ratio scales
 are used for labeling variables without any number value.
 there is no inherent quantitative difference among the categories.
Examples are: gender (male, female), hair color (black, brown).
 are rank-order observations.
 there is an underlying quantitative measurement on which the observations differ
Example: happy, unhappy, Totally agree.
Ranking of school students – 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.
Ratings in restaurants
Evaluating the frequency of occurrences(Very often)

Rewarding Happy
Unhappy
 Have a constant interval but lack a true zero point.
 One can add and subtract values on an interval scale,
 But one cannot multiply or divide units.
Example: temperature measured in degrees Celsius or
Fahrenheit, age measured in years, PH value

PH value reader Temperature scale

 Have the property of equal intervals but also have a true zero point(ability to calculate
ratios).
 One can multiply and divide as well as add and subtract using ratio scales.
Example: time (second, minute, hour),
length (centimeter, meter, kilometer),
weight (milligram, gram, kilogram),
volume (centimeter cube) and
temperature in Kelvin Scale are ratio scales.
Exercise
1. List and give at list two examples(not listed above) of level of measurement?
2. Identify the following as nominal scale, ordinal scale, interval scale, or ratio scale data.
a) Flavors of frozen yogurt ________________
b) Amount of money in savings accounts________________
c) Students classified by their reading ability: Above average, Below average, Normal ________________
d) Letter grades on an English essay ________________
e) Religions ________________
f) Commuting times to work ____________
g) Ages (in years) of art students ________________
h) Ice cream flavor preference ________________
i) Years of important historical events ________________
j) Instructors classified as: Easy, Difficult or Impossible ________________
 Standards
Standard units are conventional units which are used to measure physical quantities
scientifically.
It doesn’t have different values at different time, position and conditions.
Which one is standard measurements?

non standard measurement creates inaccuracy on measured value and bias among people
 Scientific Notation
 is a way of writing numbers that are too large or too small to be conveniently written as a decimal.
 General form=
d=decimal number between 0 and 10
n=the exponent and is an integer.
Example:-
 Significant Figures
 Significant figures are the digits that make a measurement more accurate.
 Is digits of a numerical quantity which are the result of actual measurement
 In a number, each non-zero digit is a significant figure.
 Zeroes are only counted if they are between two non-zero digits or are at the end of the decimal part.

Example: 4308 – 4 Significant figures B/C ‘0’ Is between two non zero number
40.05 – 4 Significant figures
470,000 – 2 Significant figures…….. because zero is at the end
4.00 – 3 Significant figures …… zéro Is end of decimal
0.00500 – 3 Significant figures
 Prefixes
 Prefixes are words or letters written in front that change the meaning in shorts.
Example: 1meter is 1000mm or ,so shortly We can replace the with the prefix k (kilo).

Prefix Symbol Multiplier Exponent

mega M 1,000,000
Kilo k 1,ooo
hecto h 100
deka da 10
deci d 0.1
centi c 0.01
milli m 0.001

Some prefixes units

 2.3 Measurement and Safety
Measurement is the comparison of an unknown quantity with the known fixed unit quantity.
 It consists of two parts:
 the unit and
 the number indicating how many units are in the quantity being measured.
 The measurement process has three key elements:
• The physical quantity to be measured.
• The necessary measuring tools.
• Units of measurements used (standard units).
Example: if you measure 10kg sugar,
the unit=kg
the number =10
Measuring Length
Length is the fundamental physical quantity that describes the distance between two points.
The SI unit of length is meter (m).
Uses Tape Measure, Ruler, Carpenter Rule,…etc.

Carpenter rule
Tape Measure ruler
Measuring Mass
Mass is a basic physical quantity. It is defined as the amount of matter
contained in a body.
The SI unit of mass is a kilogram (kg).
uses Beam balance
Measuring Time
Time is a basic physical quantity. It describes the duration between the beginning
and end of an event.
The S.I unit of time is second (s).
The symbol for time is 't'.
Uses Watch, clock.

Watch
EXERCISE
1, List Traditional measuring systems with devices on your surround?
2,write the name of measuring tools of mass, time and length?
 2.4 Unit conversion
At the end of this section, you should be able to:
• convert units of length from one system of units to another.
• convert units of mass from one system of units to another.
• convert units of time from one system of units to another.
 Conversion
. of units is the conversion between different units of measurement for the
same physical quantity,
 SI units can be converted to non SI units and vise versa
 UNITS CONVERSION OF LENGTH AND VOLUME

LENGTHE VOLUME
• 1 kilometer (km)=1000 meter (m) • 1 litter(L)=1000ml
• 1 meter (m)=100 centimeter (cm) • 1 cm3=1 ml
• 1 meter (m)= 1000 millimeter (mm) • 1000 liters=1 m3
• 1 centimeter= (cm) 10 millimeter (mm)
• 1 meter (m)= 0.001 kilometer (km)
Examples:
1, The distance between two electric poles measures 100 meters. What is this distance
in: a. centimeter b. kilometer

Given:- Solution:-

b)

in km =
UNITS CONVERSION OF MASS AND TIME

Conversion between units of mass. conversion between units of time.

• 1 kilogram (kg)= 1000 gram (g) • 1 minute (min)= 60 second (s)
• 1 gram (g) =0.001 kilogram (kg) • 1 hour (hr) =60 minute (min)

• 1 milligram (mg)= 0.001 gram (g) • 1 day =24 hours (hrs)

• 1 week =7 days
• 100 kilogram (kg)= 1 quintal
• 1 month= 30 days
• 1000 kilogram (kg)= 1 ton
• 1 year =365.25 days
Example
1, Express the following times in seconds.
a) 2 hours
Solution:-

2, In one of the pans of a beam balance the masses 1.5 kg and 500g placed to measure the mass of
unknown object. What is the mass of an object in gram and kilogram on the other side of the pan if they
are in balance?
Given: mass=1.5kg and 500g Required;- mass in g and kg
Solution;- Total mass =sum of masses in the pan
= 1.5 kg +500g
=2000g ………………………..is in gram
1kg=1000g
x=2000g
X=2kg …………………………..in kg
EXERCISES:-
1, Express the following time in minutes and seconds. (a) 0.25 hr. (b) 3.2 hrs. (c) 6.7
hrs.
2, Haylie is measuring two line segments. The first line segment is 30 cm long. The
second line segment is 500 mm long. How long are the two line segments together in
meter?
3, Khalid grew 10 centimeters in 1 year. He is now 1.6 m tall. How tall was he 1 year
ago?
4, A box contains 4 bags of sugar. The total mass of all 4 bags is 6 kg. What is the mass
of each bag in grams?