PHYSICS

INTRODUCTION
ZAIDATUL SALWA MAHMUD
FACULTY OF APPLIED SCIENCES
UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA
CAWANGAN PERAK KAMPUS TAPAH
019 645 7800
zaidatulsalwa@[Link]

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 Scientific progress is built on failure.
Learning to handle failure is just part of scientific life.

Development in science and technology has brought achievements and

breakthroughs in various fields.

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 Physics encompasses a remarkable variety of phenomena
CONSTRUCTION MAGNETISM
PLANETARY ORBITS

AUTOMOTIVES OPTICS & WAVES

RADIO & TV WAVES LASERS
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 Physics has developed out of the
efforts of men and women to explain
our physical environment

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Physics predicts how nature will behave in
one situation based on the results of
experimental data obtained in another
situation
Newton’s Laws
Maxwell’s
Equation
Charle’s
Law Coulomb’s
Equation
and many other models,
theories, laws and
principles…..

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 PHY110
CHAPTER 1:
PHYSICAL UNITS 6

PUSTAPA
WANGANPERAKKAM
ZSMAHMUD/UITMCA H/PHY110
 Learning Outcome
At the end of this chapter, students should
be able to explain and analyse:
1.1 Measurements & Analysis
1.2 Units and Standard of
Measurements
1.3 Unit Conversion

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 Measurements

Physics experiments involve the measurement of a variety of

quantities.
Measurement is a process to estimate or determine the magnitude of a
quantity.
should be accurate and
reproducible.
However…… No measurement is
exact.
There is always some uncertainty
due to limited instrument accuracy and
difficulty reading results.
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Uncertainty and Error in Measurement
• An error is the difference between the measured value and
the expected value of something (unavoidable).

• An uncertainty is a way of expressing or summarizing the

error (unavoidable)

• A mistake is simply not doing something correctly

through carelessness (avoidable).

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 It would be
difficult to
measure the
width of this
board more
an
accurately th
± 0.1 cm

Figure 1 : Measuring the width of a board with a centimeter ruler.

The uncertainty is ± 0.1 cm.
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• Estimated uncertainty is written with a ± sign.

o Example: 8.8 ± 0.1 cm

• Percent uncertainty is the ratio of the uncertainty to the

measured value, multiplied by 100:

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Example 1:

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Exercise 1:
State the width of the board measured using the centimeter ruler as in
figure below., and calculate the uncertainty percentage.

(Answer: 8.8 ± 0.1 cm; 1.1%)

8.8 cm

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Exercise 2:

State the time recorded on the stopwatch as in figure below, and

calculate the uncertainty percentage.

(Answer: 4 ± 1 s; 25%)

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 Accuracy
Accuracy indicates how close a measured value is to
the actual (true) value.

Precision
Precision indicates how close together or how repeatable
the results are.

x x
x x
x

Low accuracy High accuracy High accuracy

High Precision Low Precision High Precision
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 A Mix and Match
B

C
Low accuracy
High Precision

High accuracy
Low Precision

High accuracy
High Precision
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 Sensitivity
Definition:
The ability of a measuring instrument to detect small
changes in the quantity being measured.

The uncertainty in a measured value can be reduced if a

more sensitive instrument is used to measure the
quantity.

However, a measured value having a lesser uncertainty

than another value is said to be more precise.

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Examples of Measuring Instruments
-Vernier Calliper
■ A vernier caliper is used to measure an object with
dimensions up to 12 cm with an accuracy of 0.01 cm.
■ Comprises of a main scale and a vernier scale.

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■ The reading on the main scale is determined with
reference to the `0' mark on the vernier scale.
■ The reading to be taken on the vernier scale is
indicated by the mark on the vernier scale which is
exactly in line or coincides with any main scale
division line.

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■ Example in Figure below:

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Examples of Measuring Instruments
-Micrometer Screw Gauge
This instrument can be used to measure
diameters of wires and thicknesses of steel
plates to an accuracy of 0.01 mm.

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▪ The micrometer scale comprises a main scale marked on
the sleeve and a scale marked on the thimble called the
thimble scale.
▪ One division on the thimble scale is 0.01 mm

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Example:

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 TEST YOURSELF
Which of this two weighing scale is more sensitive?

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 Type of Errors
RANDOM ERRORS refer to random fluctuations in the measured data due to:
❖The readability of the instrument
❖The effects of something changing in the surroundings between measurements
❖The observer being less than perfect

SYSTEMATIC ERRORS refer to reproducible fluctuations consistently in the

same direction due to:
❖An instrument being wrongly calibrated
❖An instrument with zero error (it does not read zero when it should – to correct
for this, the value should be subtracted from every reading)
❖The observer being less than perfect in the same way during each
measurement.

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 Absolute Errors
Is an estimation of the difference between the measured
value and the real value. It also known as error, Δ.

Example:

If the exact mass of an object is 5.0kg and you estimated mass

between 4.8kg and 5.2kg. State the mass of the object.

mass, m= 5.0kg
error, Δm= 0.2kg
Thus the mass, m= 5.0 ±0.2kg
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 Relative Errors
Is the ratio of the absolute error to the real/exact value of
some measured quantity.

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Example: (by using reference of previous example)

Relative error = Δm= 0.2= 0.04

m 5.0

Percentage error = 0.2x 100% = 4%

5.0

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 Zero Errors
✔ Must be determined before measurement made.
✔ Zero error is non zero reading shown by instrument when not
measuring any object.

Figure 2. Example of a zero error detected of a weighing scale.

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o To get true reading, we need to subtract the zero error
from the observed reading.

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Example
Vernier Caliper

(a) Positive zero error

Zero error = +0.04 cm.

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0.02cm

0.70 cm
0.72 cm

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Vernier Caliper
(b) Negative zero error
Zero error = -0.02 cm.

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 Significant Figures (s.f.)
Definition:
The number of reliably known digits in a number.

Example:
23.21 (4 s. f.)
0.062 cm (2 s.f.)
80.0 km (3 s.f.)

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 Tips:
When making measurement or calculations, you should avoid the
temptation to keep more digits in the final answer than is justified.

Example:
Calculate area of a rectangle 11.3 cm by 6.8 cm.
The result of will be 76.84 cm2.
However, this answer can not be accurate to the implied 0.01 cm2 uncertainty,
Because using the outer limits of the assumed uncertainty for each measurement,
the result could be between 11.2 cm x 6.7 cm = 75.04 cm2.
At best, we can quote the answer as 77 cm2, which implies an uncertainty of about
1 or 2 cm2. The other two digits (in the number 76.84 cm2) must be dropped
(rounded off) because they are not significant.

The final result of a multiplication or division should have no more

digits than the numerical value with the fewest significant figures.

Tips:
To obtain the most accurate result, you should normally keep one or
more extra significant figures throughout a calculation, and round off
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 UNCERTAINTY

All quantities have uncertainty value.

How to identify the uncertainty value?

MEASUREMENT

Origin of the
FORMULA
quantity

SET OF
DATA

EXPERIMENTAL
GRAPH

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 UNCERTAINTY
MEASUREMENT

Refer to the sensitivity of the instrument used to

measure the corresponding quantity.

Eg:
Temperature, T
= 36.6 ± 0.1 °C

T
∆T

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 UNCERTAINTY
FORMULA

Refer to the mathematical operation involved in

obtaining the corresponding quantity.

Addition/ Substraction

Multiplication/ Division

Multiplication with constant

Raised to a power

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 UNCERTAINTY
FORMULA

Addition/ Substraction

Example:

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 UNCERTAINTY
FORMULA

Multiplication/ Division
Example:

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 UNCERTAINTY
FORMULA

Multiplication with constant

Provided that a is a constant with negligible error.

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 UNCERTAINTY
FORMULA

Raised to a power
Example:

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UNCERTAINTY
SET OF
DATA

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Eg:

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 UNCERTAINTY
EXPERIMENTAL
GRAPH

The maximum and minimum best-fit lines is one of the method to

determine the final uncertainty.

Eg:

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 Diameter of a golf ball? 0.0427 -2
4.27x10mm

Diameter of a proton?
0.000000000000001
10-15 m m

Earth to Sun distance?

1.50 x1011 m meters
149,597,870,700

Diameter of the earth?

121.27x10
714 0007
mm
Scientific notation

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 Système International
d’Unités SI

pinch

ounce

tablespoon

pounds kilogra
m
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Units and Standard of Measurements

Unit of measurement :
❖ a standard for measurement of physical quantities.
use the International System of Units (SI) as a global
standard.

What happen if the unit of a quantity

is wrongly informed?

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 Examples of unit conversion mistakes disasters in history.
NASA loses $125 million thanks to a little metric system
error. In 1999 NASA lost a Mars orbiter because one team used
metric units for a calculation and the other team didn’t.

In 1983, an Air Canada plane ran out of fuel in the

middle of a flight. The cause? Not one but two mistakes
in figuring how much fuel was needed. It was Air
Canada’s first plane to use metric measurements and
clearly not everyone had the hang of it yet. Luckily, no
one was killed and only two people received minor
injuries. That’s amazing considering the flight crew
thought they had double the fuel they actually had.

In 1999, the Institute for Safe Medication Practices reported an instance where a
patient had received 0.5 grams of Phenobarbital (a sedative) instead of
0.5 grains when the recommendation was misread. A grain is a unit of measure equal to
about 0.065 grams. The Institute emphasized that only the metric system should be used
for prescribing drugs.
Source: [Link]
 Base Derived
quantity quantity

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 Base Quantities
•No combination with other quantity.
•7 basic quantities:

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 Derived Quantities
•Combination of more than two quantities.
•Examples of derived quantities:

and many more…

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A quantity can be written in terms of prefixes (10x).

These are the standard SI

prefixes for indicating
powers of 10. Many are
familiar; femto, atto, zepto,
and yocto are rarely used.

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Read the recipes carefully.
What are the first thing you need to do
before starts cooking using this recipe?
When you only have this weighing scale…

Classic
• Cheesecake
1 cup cracker crumbs
• 3 Tbsp. sugar
• 100 g melted butter
• 32 oz. softened cream cheese
• 7 oz. sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 50000 mg beaten eggs If the statement of a problem
includes a mixture of different
units, the units must be converted
to a single, consistent set before
the problem is solved.
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 1.3 Unit Conversion
Since any quantity such as length can be measured in several different units, it
is also important to know how to convert from one prefix to another.

Example:
2 cm = ____ m
Unit Conversion

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Solution (i) :

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Solution (ii):

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Since any quantity such as length can be measured in
several different units, it is also important to know how to
convert from one unit to another.

Example:
1 ft = 0.3048 m
1 mi = 1.609 km
1 hp = 746 W
1 liter = 10-3 m3

T(°F) = T(°C) × 9/5 + 32

T(°C) = (T(°F) - 32) / (9/5)
T(K) = T(°C) + 273.15
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 Exercise 1:

One of the tallest

waterfall in Malaysia is
the Kinjang Waterfall in
Perak with a total drop of
274m. Express this drop
in feet.
Answer: 899 ft

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 Exercise 2:

An Olympic size pools can contain about

1.89x106 liter of water. State this volume in:
a)ml.
b)m3.
c)cm3.

Answer: 1.89x109 ml;

1.89x103 m3; 1.89x109 cm3

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 Exercise 3:

The average body temperatures of a rabbit

is 101.3 °F.
a)State this temperature in °C.
b)State this temperature in K.
Answer: 38.5 °C; 311.65 K

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 Summary

• Theories are created to explain observations, and then tested based

on their predictions.
• A model is like an analogy; it is not intended to be a true picture, but
to provide a familiar way of envisioning a quantity.
• A theory is much more well developed, and can make testable
predictions; a law is a theory that can be explained simply, and that is
widely applicable.
• Measurements can never be exact; there is always some uncertainty.
It is important to write them, as well as other quantities, with the
correct number of significant figures.
• The most common system of units in the world is the SI system.

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 References

• Giancoli, D.C. (2009). Physics for Scientist and Engineers with

Modern Physics. 4th Edition. New Jersey: Pearson/ Prentice Hall.
• [Link]

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 K Y OU
THAN
ANSWER A
L L EX ER C IS ES GIVEN.
M AK ES PERFEC
T.
T IC E
R! PRAC
REMEMBE

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