Measurement

Why measure ?
Almost everything you do and everything you use involves some kind of
measurement.
Many decisions you make require measurements as an input.
The size shoes to buy. The unit size of a food item. The time to leave for school.
In the quest for knowledge about our world, scientists have developed measuring
devices and standards for measurement.
Advances in science and technology are made possible through accurate, precise
measurements
Standards of measurement
In order for measurements to have meaning, standards were developed.
When we measure, we make comparisons with some standard unit.
Standards of measurement are the basis of evaluating objects in terms of mass,
length, etc.
Units are names that describe standards.
For example, kilogram is the unit that describes a standard mass.
Representing a measurement
Any measurement is given by a number followed by a unit.
The number tells the magnitude and the unit tells us what the physical quantity is.
For example 8m, 25K, 20s, 40kg.
Accuracy : This is a measure of the agreement between the measured value and the
true
value.
Precision : This is how often we can carry out a measurement and obtain the same
result.
Physical Quantities
A physical quantity such as length is a measurable property, whose meaning is
precisely defined, so that everyone can have the same understanding of the term.
Physical quantities are classified as either
Base (fundamental) quantities, including mass, length, time, or
Derived quantities, including density, speed, volume.

BASE QUANTITY
Name
Mass
Length
Time
Electric current
Temperature
Amount of substance
Luminous Intensity

DERIVED QUANTITY
density
pressure
velocity

Symbol
m
l
t
I
T
n
L

Name
kilogram
metre
second
Ampere
Kelvin
mole
candela

DEFINING EQUATION
mass/ volume
force/ area
displacement/time

BASE UNIT (SI)

Symbol
kg
m
s
A
K
mol
cd

DERIVED UNIT
kgm-3
Nm-2
ms-1

Derived units are formed from the combinations of base units e.g. kgm-3, ms-1,
ms-2.
There is only one SI unit for each physical quantity.
For convenience, when dealing with very small or large magnitudes, an approved
set of standard prefixes are used to represent sub-multiples and multiples of the base
unit.

MULTIPLES
Multiple
103
106
109
1012

SUB-MULTIPLES
Prefix
kilo
mega
giga
tera

Symbol
k
M
G
T

Sub-multiple
10-3
10-6
10-9
10-12

Prefix
milli
micro
nano
pico

Symbol
m

n
p