REVIEW OF THE

UNITS OF
MEASUREMENT
ENGR. ANGELO IBITA LUNA
Agricultural and Biosystems Engineer
[email protected]
angeloibitaluna 0905 187 4550
 Learning Objectives
At the end of the lesson, students should be able to:
• differentiate varying usage of units of measurements
• identify the applicable conversion factors especially in
converting English to Metric and vice versa
• identify prefixes and its corresponding numerical factor in
conversion and properly use it in units of measurement
• convert unit of measure across systems of measurements
• identify significant figures in given numbers
• learn scientific notation
UNIT AND MEASUREMENT
 Introduction
• As humans develop its trade, agriculture,
infrastructure and other aspects of a flourishing
civilization, came with it is the need for certain
measurement standards to effectively utilize the
knowledge and technology of their time.

• Different communities established their own way

of scaling and measuring.
UNIT AND MEASUREMENT
 Introduction

• As time passes and trading and technology gets

cross territories and seas, systems of
measurements came to be and developed into
the systems that we are accustomed today such
as the English System (BEU) and Metric System
(SI).

UNIT AND MEASUREMENT

 Introduction
• Unitof a physical quantity is defined as the
accepted standard used for comparison of given
physical quantity.

• Measurement is a result, usually expressed in

numbers, that you obtain by measuring
something.
UNIT AND MEASUREMENT
 Fundamental Quantity

•Fundamental quantities are the quantities

which cannot be expressed in terms of any
other physical quantity.

•(e.g.) length, mass and time.

UNIT AND MEASUREMENT
 SI vs BEU System of Units
PHYSICAL QUANTITY SI ENGLISH
Fundamental quantities
1. Length meter (m) feet (ft)
2. Mass kilogram (kg) pound (lb) and slug
3. Time second (s) second (s)
4. Electric current ampere (A)
5. Temperature kelvin (K)
6. Luminous Intensity candela (cd)
7. Amount of substance mole (mol)

UNIT AND MEASUREMENT

 Derived Quantities

•Quantities that can be expressed in terms of

fundamental quantities are called derived
quantities.

•(e.g.) area, volume, density.

UNIT AND MEASUREMENT
Derived Quantities and their units
Physical quantity Formula Symbol
Area of the square side x side m2
Volume of the cube side x side x side m3
Density mass/volume kg/m3
Velocity displacement/time m/s
Acceleration velocity/time m/s2
Momentum mass x velocity kg•m/s
Force mass x acceleration N
Impulse force x time Ns
Work (or) energy force x displacement J
Power work/time W

UNIT AND MEASUREMENT

 Conventions to be followed in SI units
• When we write a unit in full, the first letter should not be in
capital letter.
• meter and not as Meter
• kilogram and not as Kilogram
• The symbols of unit in the name of scientist should be in upper
case (capital) letter.
• N for newton, J for joule.
• Only the singular form of the unit is to be used.
• km and not as kms
• kg and not as kgs UNIT AND MEASUREMENT
 Conventions to be followed in SI units
• When we write a unit in full, the first letter should not be in
capital letter.
• meter and not as Meter
• kilogram and not as Kilogram
• The symbols of unit in the name of scientist should be in upper
case (capital) letter.
• N for newton, J for joule.
• Only the singular form of the unit is to be used.
• km and not as kms
• Kg and not as kgs UNIT AND MEASUREMENT
 Conventions to be followed in SI units
• There should be no full stop at the end of the abbreviations.
• mm and not as mm.
• kg and not as kg.
• When temperature is expressed in Kelvin, the degree sign is
omitted.
• 273 K not as 273 degree Kelvin
• Only accepted symbols should be used.
• ampere is represented as “A” and not “amp”
• second is represented as “s” and not “sec”
UNIT AND MEASUREMENT
 Conventions to be followed in SI units
•Use of the solidus or slash is to be avoided, but
when used, not more than one solidus be
employed.
•J/mol•K or J mol K but not J/mol/K
-1 -1

•One letter space is always to be left between

the number and the symbol of the unit
•2.3 m and not as 2.3m UNIT AND MEASUREMENT
 Conventions to be followed in SI units
•The numerical value of any physical quantity
should be expressed as p = a × 10 . Here, 'a' is
m

a number between 1 and 10 and 'm' is the

appropriate power of 10.
•Velocity of light, c = 2.997 x 10 8
ms -1

UNIT AND MEASUREMENT

Commonly Used Units of Measurement in the English System

UNIT AND MEASUREMENT

Conversion Factors

UNIT AND MEASUREMENT

Commonly used Conversion Factors

UNIT AND MEASUREMENT

SCIENTIFIC NOTATION
 Scientific Notation
• Chemists often work with numbers that are extremely
large or extremely small. For example, there are
10,300,000,000,000,000,000,000 carbon atoms in a 1-
carat diamond each of which has a mass of
0.000,000,000,000,000,000,000,020 grams.

• It is impossible to multiply these numbers with most

calculators because they can't accept either number as it
is written here.
SCIENTIFIC NOTATION
 Scientific Notation
•To do a calculation like this, it is necessary to
express these numbers in scientific
notation, as a number between 1 and 10
multiplied by 10 raised to some exponent.

SCIENTIFIC NOTATION
Some of the basics of exponential mathematics:
•Any number raised to the zero power is
equal to 1.
10 = 1 100 = 1

•Any number raised to the first power is equal

to itself.
11 = 1 101 = 10
SCIENTIFIC NOTATION
Some of the basics of exponential mathematics:

•Any number raised to the nth power is equal

to the product of that number times itself n-1
times.
22 = 2 x 2 = 4
105 = 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 = 100,000
SCIENTIFIC NOTATION
Some of the basics of exponential mathematics:

•Dividing by a number raised to an exponent is

the same as multiplying by that number
raised to an exponent of the opposite sign.
= 10-2 = 10-3

SCIENTIFIC NOTATION
 Converting to Scientific Notation
The following rule can be used to convert numbers into scientific
notation:
• Theexponent in scientific notation is equal to the
number of times the decimal point must be moved to
produce a number between 1 and 10.
• In 1990, the population of Chicago was 6,070,000. To
convert this number to scientific notation we move the
decimal point to the left six times.
6,070,000 = 6.070 x 106 SCIENTIFIC NOTATION
The following rule can be used to convert numbers
into scientific notation:

•To translate 10,300,000,000,000,000,000,000

carbon atoms into scientific notation, we
move the decimal point to the left 22 times.
10,300,000,000,000,000,000,000 = 1.03 x 10 22
SCIENTIFIC NOTATION
The following rule can be used to convert numbers
into scientific notation:

•To convert numbers smaller than 1 into

scientific notation, we have to move the
decimal point to the right. The decimal point
in 0.000985, for example, must be moved to
the right four times.
0.000985 = 9.85 x 10 -4
SCIENTIFIC NOTATION
The following rule can be used to convert numbers into
scientific notation:

• Converting 0.000,000,000,000,000,000,000,020
grams per carbon atom into scientific notation
involves moving the decimal point to the right 23
times.
0.000,000,000,000,000,000,000,020 = 2.0 x 10-23
SCIENTIFIC NOTATION
 Significant figures
• The primary reason for converting numbers into
scientific notation is to make calculations with unusually
large or small numbers less cumbersome. Because zeros
are no longer used to set the decimal point, all of the
digits in a number in scientific notation are significant, as
shown by the following examples.
2.4 x 1022 2 significant figures
9.80 x 10-4 3 significant figures
1.055 x 10-22 4 significant figures
SCIENTIFIC NOTATION