Physical Quantities

and
Vectors
 Content
• Physical Quantities
 Standard Units
 Matter and Model Building
 Dimensional Analysis
 Conversion of Units
 Estimate and Order of Magnitude
• Vectors
 Coordinate system and components
 Scalar, Vector Addition and Subtraction
 Vector Multiplication
Physical Quantities
 Standard Units
Physics is an experimental science that deals with any physical
system or phenomenon

• Physical Quantity: are quantities that can be measured

physically, such as time, length, weight, etc.
• UNITS: all physical quantities have units that shows its
dimension. These are accurate and can be reproduce and be
done by everyone, e.g. time, length, height, etc.
 Standard Units
Four Basic Properties of Units:

1. They must be well defined

2. They should be reproducible
3. They should be invariable
4. They should be accepted by all.
• Measurement: is the way to compare one quantity towards another
physical quantity.
• System International: also preferred as system international by the
French, this is the unified and widely used units by scientist and
engineers, also called as the metric system.
 Standard Units
• English System: one of the first unit system used, due to it is
not accurate, most scientist stop using it.
• Fundamental Units: are set of physical quantity that are
independent from one another, these fundamental units are
constant and with high accuracy and precision which recently
been revise and published in May 20, 2019.
 Standard Units
PHYSICAL QUANTITY UNIT (SI)
TIME Seconds (s)
LENGTH Meter (m)
MASS Kilograms (kg)
TEMPERATURE Kelvin (K)
CURRENT Ampere (A)
LUMINOUS INTENSITY Candela (cd)
AMOUNT OF SUBSTANCE Mole (mol)

Table 1.1: Fundamental Unit and their SI abbreviation.

 Standard Units
• Time (s): the second is the duration of 9192631770 periods of
the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two
hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom
• Length(m): the metre is the length of the path travelled by
light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299792458 of a
second.
• Mass (kg):the kilogram is the unit of mass; it is equal to the
mass of the international prototype of the kilogram.
Standard Units
Standard Units
 Standard Units
• Unit Prefixes: is a specifier that is prepended to units of
measurement that indicate multiples or fraction.
Metric prefixes in everyday use Metric prefixes in everyday use
Text Symbol Factor Power Text Symbol Factor Power
tera T 100000000000 1012 (none) (none) 1 100
0
deci d 0.1 10−1
giga G 1000000000 109
centi c 0.01 10−2
mega M 1000000 10 6

milli m 0.001 10−3

kilo k 1000 103
micro μ 0.000001 10−6
hecto h 100 10 2

nano n 0.000000001 10−9

deca da 10 10 1

pico p 0.00000000000 10−12

(none) (none) 1 10 0
1

Table 1.3a: Multiple of unit prefixes Table 1.3b: Fraction of unit prefixes
 Matter and Model Building
Introduction:
In solving physics problems, one of the most effective and
efficient way to understand a phenomenon is by building a model
or illustration, with in this drawing/ model, detail is not the key
but the boundaries, force, present, etc., which are present that
will help us understand and predict such phenomenon.
 Matter and Model Building
Atoms:
• comes from the Greek word atomos meaning “not
sliceable”, the smallest unit matter.

• measured in angstrom(Å ) which is 10-10 m, this are very

small and can’t be seen by the naked eye
 Matter and Model Building
Atoms Component:
• Electron (-e): a stable subatomic particle with a charge of
negative electricity, found in all atoms and acting as the
primary carrier of electricity in solids.
• Proton (+e): a stable subatomic particle occurring in all
atomic nuclei, with a positive electric charge equal in
magnitude to that of an electron, but of opposite sign.
 Matter and Model Building
Atoms Component:
• Neutron: a subatomic particle of about the same mass as
a proton but without an electric charge, present in all
atomic nuclei except those of ordinary hydrogen.
• Nucleus: the positively charged central core of an atom,
consisting of protons and neutrons and containing nearly
all its mass.
 Matter and Model Building
Introduction:

Figure 1.2: Planetary Model of Atom

 Dimensional Analysis
Introduction

Dimension are nature of physical quantities, e.g. time, meter,

volume, area, etc., the dimensionality of physical quantities
dictates its behavior in space, leading to proportionality towards
one physical quantity, using dimensional analysis gives you a way
to check if you derived the right formula, but even if you get the
right unit it is not always true that you derive the right formula,
but equation must be dimensionally consistent
Dimensional Analysis
Dimensional Analysis
Dimensional Analysis
Dimensional Analysis
Dimensional Analysis
 Conversion of Units
Introduction

Units can be treated as algebraic quantities, like the dimension, with that in
mind, converting unit is solely dependent of their respective fundamental
quantities, e.g kilometer to meter, hour to sec, coulomb to micro coulomb,
etc.. In some countries English system of units are still used, mainly USA
and some other countries, conversion table below are given
 Conversion of Units
Length Time Mass
1 m =100 cm =1000 mm =106 mm =109 nm 1 y = 365.24 d = 3.156107 s 1 kg has a weight of 2.205 lb when g = 9.80
1 km = 1000 m = 0.6214 mi 1 d = 86,400 s 1 u = 1.661 10 -27 kg
1 m = 3.281 ft = 39.37 in. 1 h = 3600 s
1 slug = 14.59 kg
1 cm = 0.3937 in. 1 min = 60 s
1 g = 6.85 10-5 slug
1 in. = 2.540 cm
1 kg = 103 g = 0.0685 slug
1 ft = 30.48 cm
1 yd = 91.44 cm
1 mi = 5280 ft = 1.609 km
1 Å = 10-10 m = 10-8 cm = 10-1 nm
1 nautical mile = 6080 ft
1 light year = 9.4611015 m

Table 1.4: Unit conversion factor

 Conversion of Units
Example 1: Given 763.0 mi/h, express this speed to meter per
second.
Solution:
Recall:
1mi=1.609km 1hr=60mins
1km=1000 m 1min= 60s
 Conversion of Units
Example 1: Given 763.0 mi/h, express this speed to meter per
second.
Solution:
Conversion of Units
 Estimate and Order of Magnitude
Introduction:

We have various measuring tools and techniques, for example we

have a ruler and a caliper both tools are used to measure length
of a certain object, but why are they different from one another?
 Estimate and Order of Magnitude
Illustration:
Scenario 1:Two students are task to measure a diameter of a solid sphere using
a ruler, each student must measure and it individually, then they are task to
compare their measurement and, answer the question, who did get the right
measurement?

• If both of them got the same measurement, the students can say they
got it right, and this is the example of being precise.

• If the students have a reference of what they should have measured,

either given by the teacher or by the science community, and one of them
got it, this is the example of being accurate.
 Estimate and Order of Magnitude

Precision: is the manner of obtaining the same result without

any reference, it is sometimes called the repeatability of
acquiring the same result using the same technique.

Accuracy: is the manner of obtaining a result/ value near or

exact with the reference.
 Estimate and Order of Magnitude
Illustration:
Scenario 2: Two students are task to measure a diameter of a
solid sphere using (1) a ruler, (2) a Vernier Caliper, then they are
task to compare their measurement, the result of the ruler is
12.50mm while the Venier caliper is 12.48mm, why is it different?

Every measuring tool has some uncertainty (error), the

ruler’s most reliable measurement in only in millimeter,
while the caliper has the nearest 0.01 millimeter. For this we
can say that the more accurate your measuring tool is the less
error (uncertainty) your result is.
 Estimate and Order of Magnitude
Uncertainty: Describe by Karl Pearson as an inherent manner in
nature, says that every measurement has an error, the probability of
measurement to yield a true value.

2 ways to express Uncertainty

1) Fractional Uncertainty
2) Percent Uncertainty

Significant Figures: number of meaningful digit, solution for

unpredicted/ not given uncertainty.
 Estimate and Order of Magnitude
Rules in Solving Physics Problem Using Significant Figures:
1)When multiplying several quantities, the number of significant
figures in the final answer is the same as the number of significant
figures in the quantity having the smallest number of significant
figures. The same rule applies to division.

2)When numbers are added or subtracted, the number of decimal

places in the result should equal the smallest number of decimal
places of any term in the sum or difference.

3)Answers are usually 3 significant figures.

Estimate and Order of Magnitude
Estimate and Order of Magnitude
 Estimate and Order of Magnitude

Scientific Notation: is a way of expressing numbers that are too big

or too small to be conveniently written in decimal form.
DECIMAL NOTATION SCIENTIFIC NOTATION
2 2×100

300 3×102

4321.768 4.321768×10 3

−53000 −5.3×10 4

6720000000 6.72×10 9

0.2 2×10−1

987 9.87×10 2

0.00000000751 7.51×10 −9
 Estimate and Order of Magnitude
Estimates and Order of magnitude: this is a technique used for large
calculation, an intelligent guess to make the calculation much easier to
handle. Too low estimate is to poor as to high estimate. Usually written in
scientific notation not greater-than or less-than power of ten (10). Also
referred as “back-of-the-enveloped-calculation”.
 Estimate and Order of Magnitude

Example 4: Estimate the number of breath taken by a 70 year old human.

Solution:

Estimate number of breath (N­b)/min= 10 Nb/min

Converting 70yrs to min
Estimate and Order of Magnitude
Vectors
Coordinate system and components
In science illustration are one of the fundamental steps that helps in
solving problems, discovering/ analyzing scientific laws, together
with the illustration is the space we are observing and in science we
call it coordinate system. Coordinate system uses symmetry to solve
and analyze problems, if you go deeper in physics you will see that
coordinate system used are separable.
Coordinate system and components
• Cartesian Coordinate System: also call the rectangular system,
usually noted as (x , y), e.g (10,1) .
Coordinate system and components
Coordinate system and components
Coordinate system and components
Coordinate system and components
Scalar, Vector Addition and Subtraction
• Vector quantity: are quantities that have number with units
and direction, “can be negative”.
• Scalar quantity: are quantities that have number with units
but no direction, “cannot be negative”.

} Components of 3D
Cartesian vector
Scalar, Vector Addition and Subtraction
 Scalar, Vector Addition and Subtraction
Subtraction of vector: subtraction of vector happens when a vector is
facing of the opposite direction of a positive direction, if addition is
tip to tail, tail to tail graphical representation of vector leads to
subtraction of vector.
 Scalar, Vector Addition and Subtraction

Solution:
 Scalar, Vector Addition and Subtraction

Solution:
 Scalar, Vector Addition and Subtraction

Solution:
Scalar, Vector Addition and Subtraction
 Scalar, Vector Addition and Subtraction
Example 3:
Solution:
 Scalar, Vector Addition and Subtraction
Example 3:
Solution:
 Vector Multiplication
• Dot Product: also called the scalar product of two vectors is the
magnitude of one times the projection of the second onto the first.
Below are properties of dot product.
Vector Multiplication
Vector Multiplication
Vector Multiplication
Vector Multiplication
 Vector Multiplication
Cross Product: also called the vector product, the name suggests that
when two vector performs cross product it will give a new vector
perpendicular towards both the vector, and the magnitude is equal to
the area of the parallelogram that the vector span. The direction of
the product of the new vector can be seen using right-hand-rule
below are some of the properties of cross product.
Vector Multiplication
Vector Multiplication
 Vector Multiplication

Solution