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Chapter 1

1.1 Time and Distance


In this section, you will learn about two fundamental properties of the universe: time and distance. Learning about how things change with time motivates much of our study of nature. We are born and our bodies change as time passes. The steady forward movement of time creates a present, a past, and a future. Another important quality of the universe is that it has three dimensions. To observe and learn about objects, their sizes, and their motion in the universe, we need units of length. Common measures for length are inches and meters. Other units of length are used for very small distances like atomic sizes and very large distances like those between cities.

Figure 1.1: The flow of time is an


important part of our experience of life. To understand nature we need to investigate how things change with time.

Two ways to think about time


What time is it? There are two ways we think about time (figure 1.2). One meaning for time is to identify a particular moment. If we ask What time is it? we usually want to know time relative to the rest of the universe and everyone in it. For example, 3:00 PM, Eastern Time, on April 21 tells the time at a certain place on Earth. How much time? Another meaning for time is a quantity, or interval of time. The question How much time? is asking for an interval of time with a beginning and end. For example, we might measure how much time has passed between the start of a race and when the first runner crosses the finish line.

How is time For most of physical science we measure and record time in seconds. Some other measured? units of time you may see are hours, minutes, days, and years. Choose the unit most suited to the time you want to measure. Short races are best measured in seconds while the age of a person is best measured in years.

Figure 1.2: There are two different ways to understand time.

1.1 Time and Distance

Chapter 1 Time comes Many calculations require that time be expressed in seconds. However, seconds in mixed units are very short. Hours and minutes are more convenient for everyday time measurement. As a result, time intervals are often in mixed units, such as 2 minutes and 15 seconds. If you have a time interval that is in mixed units you will have to convert it to seconds before doing calculations. Table 1.1 gives some useful relationships between units of time. Table 1.1: Some units for time Time Unit 1 second 1 minute 1 hour 1 day 1 year 1 century How Many Seconds 1 60 3,600 86,400 31,557,600 3,155,760,000 How Many Days 0.0001157 0.00694 0.0417 1 365.25 36,525

Figure 1.3: Electronic timers


have displays that show mixed units. Colons (:) separate the units.

Example:
Convert the time in figure 1.3 to seconds.

Why we have How many seconds have there been since you were born? From the table you different units for should see that for every year there are 31,557,600 seconds. To give your age in time seconds would be silly. The number would be too big and change too fast. Years is a better unit for describing peoples ages. How do you read Most timing equipment (including digital timers) displays time in three units: a timer? hours, minutes, and seconds. Colons separate the units into hours, minutes, and seconds. The seconds number may have a decimal that shows fractions of a second. To read a timer you need to recognize and separate out the different units. Figure 1.3 shows a timer display that reads 1 hour, 26 minutes, and 31.25 seconds. How do you To convert a time to seconds you have to first separate out all the different units. convert to For physics problems, the starting units will often be hours, minutes, and seconds. seconds? Follow the list below to convert any amount of time to seconds. 1 Separate the total time into the amount of time in each unit. 2 Convert each separate quantity of time to seconds. 3 Add all the seconds.

Solution:
Separate time into each unit. 1 hour 26 minutes 31.25 seconds Convert each different unit into seconds. 1 hour 3,600 seconds/hour = 3,600 seconds 26 minutes 60 seconds/minute = 1,560 seconds Then add all the seconds. 3,600.00 1,560.00 + 31.25 5,191.25 seconds

Chapter 1

Measuring distance
Distance is Distance describes how far it is from one point to another. Distance is measured in units of length. Like other measured in units measurements, distance always has a number and a unit. It is hard to say precisely how far something has moved of length without units. It would be silly to ask someone to walk 25. They would ask, Twenty-five what? There is a big difference between 25 feet and 25 miles! Without units, distance measurements are meaningless. There are two There are two common systems of units that are used for measuring distance. You need to understand both systems. common systems The English system uses inches, feet, and miles. The metric system uses millimeters, centimeters, meters, and kilometers.

1.1 Time and Distance

Chapter 1

Why are there so many different ways to measure the same thing?
Why units were Units were invented so people could communicate amounts to each other. For invented example, suppose you want to buy 10 feet of rope. The person selling the rope takes out a ruler that is only 10 inches long (instead of 12 inches) and counts out 10 lengths of the ruler. Do you get your moneys worth of rope? Of course not! For communication to be successful, everyones idea of one foot (or any other unit of measure) must be the same. Figure 1.4 illustrates a hot dog vendor trying to sell a foot-long hot dog that is only 10 inches long. If the girl were to buy a hot dog, would she be getting what the sign says that she is paying for? Scientists use Almost all fields of science use metric units because they are so much easier to metric units work with. In the English system, there are 12 inches in a foot, 3 feet in a yard, and 5,280 feet in a mile. In the metric system, there are 10 millimeters in a centimeter, 100 centimeters in a meter, and 1,000 meters in a kilometer. Factors of 10 are easier to remember than 12, 3, and 5,280. The diagram below will help you get a sense for the metric units of distance.

Figure 1.4: The hot dog vendor


and the girl have different ideas about how long a foot is.

We use units In your life, and in this book, we use both English and metric units. We measure every day some quantities, like power and wavelength, in metric units. We measure other quantities, like weight and speed, in both metric and English units. Science measurements are always metric, but you may use units of pounds and miles per hour in your daily experience. In many other countries, people use metric units for everyday measurements.

Figure 1.5: In 1791, a meter was


defined as 1/10,000,000 of the distance from a pole of Earth to its equator. Today the meter is defined more accurately using wavelengths of light.

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