General physics 1 (10221101)

Classical Mechanics

Motion of objects

Large objects (much larger than an atom)

Slow objects (much smaller than the speed of
light)

Key concepts

Linear and angular (displacement, velocity and

acceleration)
force
energy
momentum

Ch01: Measurement
In this chapter we will cover

Basic quantities of mechanics

International system of units (SI units)

Problem solving

Length
Time
Mass

Units and conversion

Significant figures
Order of magnitude

Basic Quantities of Mechanics

All physics quantities have units. In Mechanics,
the basic physical quantities in are

Length (L) SI Unit: meters (m)

Mass (M) SI Unit: kilograms (kg)

Standard is related to the speed of light

Standard is a specific Pt-Ru cylinder in France

Time (T) SI Unit: seconds (s)

Standard is related to the vibration of a Ce atom.

SI system of units
Meter, Second, and kilogram are the SI units for the three basic
quantities Length, Time, and Mass.
The SI system, is the French International System of Units; it is
also called the metric system of units.

Prefixes for Powers of Ten

To express very large or very small units we can use scientific
notations for power of 10s

Also we usually add to a unit a prefix for power of ten for very
large or very small quantities

Prefixes

Prefixes correspond to powers of 10 (table 1-2)

Each prefix has a specific name/abbreviation
.

Power Prefix
1015
109
106
103
10-2
10-3
10-6
10-9
10-12

Peta
giga
mega
kilo
centi
milli
micro
nano
pico

Abbrev.
P
G
M
k
c
m

n
p

Examples:
Distance from Earth to nearest star
40 Pm
Mean radius of Earth 6 Mm
Length of a housefly 5 mm
Size of living cells 10 m
Size of an atom 0.1 nm

Range of Values for three basic

units in SI system

Length (m)

The farthest quasar = 1.4 x 1026

The moon = 1.5 x 1011
Football field = 9.1 x 101
Typical cell ~ 10-5
Atom ~ 10-10

Time (s)

Mass (kg)

Universe ~ 1052
Earth = 5.98 x 1024
Human ~ 102
Bacterium ~ 10-15
Hydrogen atom = 1.67 x 10-27

Age of universe = 5 x 1017

Age of earth = 1.3 x 1017
You ~ 6.3 x 108
One heartbeat = 8 x 10-1
Nuclear collision ~ 10-22

Other unit systems

c
g
s
cgs units: (centimeter, gram, second)
L
M
T

ft
sl
s
US customary: (foot, slug, second)
or English units
L
M
T

Atomic mass
Another unit of mass is used for atomic mass measurements.
Carbon-12 atom has a mass of 12 atomic mass units.
1 atomic mass unit is defines as:

Ex: How many atoms are there in 10g Iron sample? What is the
volume of the iron sample. Iron atomic mass = 55.845, iron
density = 7.86 g/cm3
Atomic mass in grams = (atomic weight)(atomic mass unit)
= 55.845u * 1.66110-27 kg/u = 9.27610-27 kg
Number of atoms

9.27610-27 kg

1 atom

1010-3 kg

?? atoms

1010-3

kg/

9.27610-27

Number of atoms

kg = 1.081024 atom

= m/V Volume V = m/ = 10/7.86 = 1.27 cm3

Derived quantities
Derived Quantity Defined in terms of combinations of basic
quantities; Many units are derived from this set of basic units, like
the power
like speed which is length/time measured in (m/s)
Also like density = Mass per unit volume :
Densities of various
substances
Substance

(103

kg/m3)

Lead

11.3

Aluminum

2.7

Water

Air

0.0012

SI unit

(kg

m3

Newton is other derived

quantity from basic units
SI unit

Force 1N = 1 kg m/s

Example1.1:
A small cube of iron is observed
under a microscope.
Find the mass of the block

= 7.86 g/cm3

L = 10 m

m
m = V
V

= 7.86 g/cm3= 7860 kg/m3

V = L3 = (10 10 6 ) 3 = 1 10 15 m 3

m
m = V = 7.86 10 12 kg
V

Conversions
When units are not consistent , you may need to convert
them to appropriate ones
Units can be treated like algebraic
quantities that can cancel each other out
We always need some conversion factors, like

1 mile = 1609 m = 1.609 km

1m = 39.37 in = 3.281 ft

1 ft = 0.3048 m = 30.48 cm
1 in = 0.0254 m = 2.54 cm

For unit conversion, we always insert a factor equivalent to 1

Ex: 1.4
Legal freeway speed limit in Canada is 100 km/h.
What is it in miles/h?

Ex: 1.5:
How many seconds are there in 29 days?

24h 60 min 60 s
6

29day

2.5 10 s
1day 1h 1 min

Significant Figures (sig. fig.)

There is uncertainty in every measurement, this uncertainty

carries over through the calculations
Use rules for significant figures to approximate the
uncertainty in results of calculations
A significant figure is one that is reliably known
All non-zero digits are significant;
12345 5 sig. fig.
Leading zeros (zeros on the left) are not significant
0.000012 2 sig. fig.
0000.0 no sig. fig.
Zeros are significant when they are between other non-zero
digits
1203 4 sig. fig.
Trailing zeros (zeros on the right) are opaque ().
If zeros are significant, we add decimal point
1200 2 or 4 sig fig??? But 1200. 4 sig. fig.

Significant Figures (sig. fig.)

can be clarified by using scientific notation

3 sig. fig.
5 sig. fig.
6 sig. fig.

When adding and subtracting, use the smallest number of

decimal places in any of the terms.
Example: 135 m + 6.213 m = 141 m
When multiplying or dividing, use the lowest number of
significant figures in any of the terms.
2 sig. Fig.
Ex:
2x3000.0 = 6000.0
rectangular plate: 4.51 cm by 7.3 cm
area: 32.92 cm2 rounded to 33 cm2 = 6x103 (1 sig. fig.)

Order of magnitude; rapid estimating

Sometimes, we are interested in only an approximate value for a
quantity. We are interested in obtaining rough or order of magnitude
estimates.
Order of magnitude estimates: Made by rounding off all numbers
in a calculation to nearest power of 10 (1 sig fig, along with power of
10).
Ex:
141 is rounded to 100 = 1102 order of magnitude is 2
6.710-9s rounded to 1010-9=110-8 order of magnitude is -8
What is human being length order of magnitude in meters? Order
human length rounded to 1100 order of magnitude for human
being is 0

Review

Length, mass and time are the basic quantities of

mechanics
We use SI units (m, kg, s)
Other derived units from basic units like density and
force
When solving problems use dimensional analysis
We do unit conversions using factor of one.
For accuracy, we use significant figures.
Rapid value estimation can be done using order of
magnitude estimation