UNITS AND

MEASUREMENT
LECTURE BY:
GYYAN CLASSES
VADODARA
Topics Covered

 Introduction
 The International System of Units
 Dimensions of Physical quantities
 Dimensional Formulae and dimension equations
 Dimensional analysis and it’s application
Learning Outcome (LO)
After completion of chapter the students can…..

 LO-01 Understand the concept of Units for different

Measurement in Physics.

 LO -02 Learn and Remember the significance concept for writing

the numbers.

 LO-03 – Apply the SI system to write units of quantities (Basic &

General).
Why Units are Imp?
 Measurement of any physical quantity involves comparison with a certain basic,
arbitrarily chosen, internationally accepted reference standard called unit.
 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 combinations of the base
units. Such units obtained for the derived quantities are called derived units.
 A complete set of these units, both the base units and derived units, is known as the
system of units.
Base Units
 The diff. Systems
Unit Length Mass Time
System of
Measuremen
t

SI Meter (m) Kilogram Second (S)

(Kg)

CGS Centimeter Gram (gm) Second (S)

(cm)

MKS Meter (m) Kilogram Second (S)

(Kg)

FPS Foot (ft) Pound (lb) Second (s)

 The International System of Units (SI
System)
 The system of units which is at present internationally accepted for
measurement is the Système Internationale d’ Unites (French for
International System of Units), abbreviated as SI. The SI, with
standard scheme of symbols, units and abbreviations, developed by
the Bureau International des Poids et measures (The International
Bureau of Weights and Measures, BIPM) in 1971 were recently
revised by the General Conference on Weights and Measures in
November 2018.
SI Base
quantities &
Units
Note Both Images
copied from ncert
book. Pg no 2-3.
Significant Figures:

1—Reliable
6- Certain
1.6

A choice of change of different units does not change the number of

significant digits or figures in a measurement.
The Rules
 All the non-zero digits are significant.
 All the zeros between two non-zero digits are significant, no matter where the decimal
point is, if at all.
 If the number is less than 1, the zero(s) on the right of decimal point but to the left of the
first non-zero digit are not significant. [In 0.00 2308, the underlined zeroes are not
significant].
 The terminal or trailing zero(s) in a number without a decimal point are not significant.
[Thus 123 m = 12300 cm = 123000 mm has three significant figures, the trailing zero(s)
being not significant.] However, you can also see the next observation.
 The trailing zero(s) in a number with a decimal point are significant. [The numbers
3.500 or 0.06900 have four significant figures each.]
The One Solution for significant Numbers

 To remove such ambiguities in determining the number of

significant figures, the best way is to report every measurement in
scientific notation (in the power of 10). In this notation, every
number is expressed as a × 10b, where a is a number between 1 and
10, and b is any positive or negative exponent (or power) of 10.

4.237/2.51 = 1.68804780876 = 1.68

0.307-0.304 = 0.003 = 3 x 10-3

Rules for Arithmetic Operations with
Significant Figures
 In multiplication or division, the final result should retain as many
significant figures as are there in the original number with the least
significant figures.
Examples
1. Each of side of a cube is measured to be 7.203 m. What are the
total surface area and volume of the cube to appropriate
significance figures?

L The number of significant figures in the measured length is 4. The

B
calculated area and the volume should therefore be rounded off to
3
4 significant figures.

Surface area of the cube = 6(7.203)2 m2 = 311.299254 m2 =

1 H 311.3 m2
5
6 2 Volume of the cube
= (7.203)3 m3 = 373.714754 m3
= 373.7 m3
4
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