Units & Measurement

Physical Quantity :

A quantity which can be measured and by which various physical happenings can be
explained and expressed in form of laws is called a physical quantity. For example length,
mass, time, force etc.

Physical quantity (Q) = Magnitude x Unit = n xu

Ex- 5 kg where, 5 = Magnitude, Kg is unit

Types of Physical Quantity

(1) Ratio (numerical value only): When a physical quantity is a ratio of two similar
quantities, it has no unit.
e.g.

(I) Relative density Density of object/Density of water at 4°C

Refractive index = Velocity of light in air/Velocity of light in medium

(ii) Strain = Change in dimension/Original dimension

(2) Scalar (Magnitude only): These quantities do not have any direction.
e.g. Length, time, work, energy etc.
(3) Vector (magnitude and direction): A vector is a quantity that has both magnitude
(size or amount) and direction
e.g. displacement, velocity, acceleration, force etc.

Fundamental and Derived Quantities

(1) Fundamental quantities : Fundamental quantities in physics are

independent physical quantities that cannot be defined in terms of other
quantities.

(2) Derived quantities :- All other physical quantities can be derived by suitable
multiplication or division of different powers of fundamental quantities. These are
therefore called derived quantities.

Fundamental and Derived Units

Fundamental Units :- Fundamental units are the foundational building blocks for
measuring physical quantities.

Derived Units :- Derived units are measurement units created by combining base units in
an algebraic equation.

System of units: A complete set of units, both fundamental and derived for all kinds of
physical quantities is called system of units. The common systems are given below 👇

1. CGS system: This system is also called Gaussian system of units. In this length,
mass and time have been chosen as the fundamental quantities and corresponding
fundamental units are centimetre (cm), gram (g) and second (s) respectively.

2. (2) MKS system: This system is also called Giorgi system. In this system also length,
mass and time have been taken as fundamental quantities, and the corresponding
fundamental units are metre, kilogram and second.

3. (3) FPS system: In this system foot, pound and second are used respectively for
measurements of length, mass and time. In this system force is a derived quantity
with unit poundal.

4. (4) S. 1. System: It is known as International system of units, and is extended system

of units applied to whole physics. There are seven fundamental quantities in this
system
Besides the above seven fundamental units two supplementary units are also defined -
Radian (rad) for plane angle and Steradian (sr) for solid angle.

• Find the Dimensions of following

1. Velocity
2. Acceleration
3. Momentum (P)
4. Impulse (1)
5. Force (F)
6. Pressure (P)
7. Kinetic energy (EK)
8. Power (P)
9. Density (d)
10. Gravitational constant (G)
11. Velocity gradient (V_{g})
 12. Stress
13. Strain
14. Modulus of elasticity €
15. Time period (7)
16. Frequency (n)
17. Temperature (T)
18. Heat (Q)
19. Specific Heat ©

Application of Dimensional Analysis

(1) To find the unit of a physical quantity in a given system of units Writing the definition
or formula for the physical quantity we find its dimensions. Now in the dimensional
formula replacing M, L and T by the fundamental units of the required system we get
the unit of physical quantity. However, sometimes to this unit we further assign a
specific name, e.g.. Work = Force x Displacement
So [W] = [MLT]×[L] = [MLT-2]
So its units in C.G.S. system will be g cm²/s² which is called erg while in M.K.S.
system will be kg m³/s² which is called joule.

Problem 1.

(2) To find dimensions of physical constant or coefficients: As dimensions of a physical

quantity are unique, we write any formula or equation incorporating the given
constant and then by substituting the dimensional formulae of all other quantities,
we can find the dimensions of the required constant or coefficient.

Problem 2.
 Problem 3.

(3) To convert a physical quantity from one system to the other: The measure of a
physical quantity is nu constant
(4) To check the dimensional correctness of a given physical relation:
This is based on the 'principle of homogeneity. According to this principle the
dimensions of each term on both sides of an equation must be the same.
Significant Figures

Significant figures in the measured value of a physical quantity tell the number of
digits in which we have confidence. Larger the number of significant figures
obtained in a measurement, greater is the accuracy of the measurement. The
reverse is also true.

The following rules are observed in counting the number of significant figures in a
given measured quantity.

(1) All non-zero digits are significant.

Example:
42.3 has three significant figures.
243.4 has four significant figures.

(2) A zero becomes significant figure if it appears between to non-zero digits.

Example:
5.03 has three significant figures.
5.604 has four significant figures.
4.04 has four significant figures.

(3) Leading zeros or the zeros placed to the left of the number are never
significant.

Example:
0.543 has three significant figures.
0.045 has two significant figures.
0.006 has one significant figures.

(4) Trailing zeros or the zeros placed to the right of the number are
significant.

Example:
4.330 has four significant figures.
433.00 has five significant figures.
343.000 has six significant figures.
 (5) In exponential notation, the numerical portion gives the number of
significant figures.
Example:
1.32 * 10 ^ - 2 has three significant figures.
1.32 * 10 ^ 4 has three significant figures.

Rounding Off

While rounding off measurements, we use the following rules by convention:

(1) If the digit to be dropped is less than 5, then the preceding digit is left uncha

Example: x = 7.82 is rounded off to 7.8,

X = 3.94 is rounded off to 3.9.

(2) If the digit to be dropped is more than 5, then the preceding digit is raised by one.
Example x = 6.87 is rounded off to 6.9,
again x = 12.78 is rounded off to 12.8.

(3) If the digit to be dropped is 5 followed by digits other than zero, then the
preceding digit is raised by one.

Example: x = 16.351 is rounded off to 16.4,

again x = 6.758 is rounded off to 6.8. It is even.

(4) If digit to be dropped is 5 or 5 followed by zeros, then preceding digit is left

unchanged, if
Examplex 3.250 becomes 3.2 on rounding off, again x = 12.65 becomes 12.6 on
rounding off.

(5) If digit to be dropped is 5 or 5 followed by zeros, then the preceding digit is raised
by one, if it is odd.

Significant Figures in Calculation