CHAPTER

PHYSICAL QUANTITIES, SYSTEMS OF

UNIT AND ERRORS IN
MEASUREMENT
Upon completing this unit chapter, you should be able:
To memorize the 5 basic quantities and their units
To derive units for physical quantities
To validate coherency physics equations such as E=mc2 and F=mv 2/r
using unit or dimension analysis
To do conversion from non-SI unit including non-metric unit for
physical quantities to their respective SI units
To differentiate between accuracy and precision
To identify the source of systematic and random error and method in
reducing the errors

CONCEPT MAPPING

Physical
Unit

Derived
quantity

Basic
quantity

Imperial
unit
SI unit

c.g.s
Dimension
analysis
Measurement
and Errors

Random
error

Precision
Accuracy

Systematic
error

Introduction
Almost all physics quantities whether they are scalars or vectors are stated with their amount
(magnitude) and their units. Exclusively for vectors, another additional requirement is that the
direction must also be included. Quantities that are not stated with their proper units practically
have no meaning, ambiguous and confusing. In educational establishments and most industries, a
special form of metric system known as the System International or SI is now in general use.
However in some areas of works, other system of unit such as Imperial Unit system still being
used widely especially in engineering and social communication. For an appreciation of its
importance, try to make sense of the statements below.
The velocity of the aircraft is 20 due East before it explodes
The velocity of the air craft is 20 km/h due east before it explodes
The velocity of the aircraft is 500 m/s due east before it explodes
The first line of the statement has an expression of the magnitude but without any unit included
therefore,the statement has no meaning what so ever. The second statement, even though has
magnitude and its unit attached but it does not come to the sense as such stated speed is too low
for an aircraft. For the purpose of comparison, the stated speed is about the speed of a person
achieved in 100 m run. The third line of the statement seems acceptable as it is expressed
correctly and sensibly.

1.1 Basic quantities and units

Basic quantities are fundamental quantities in physics that they are not derived or formed by
combination of other quantities. These are length, time, mass, temperature and current. The five
basic quantities and their units are given in the table below. These units formed a group of the
basic units in SI for all other units in physics.
Table 1.1 Basic quantities and their corresponding SI units

Basic quantity

Length

Symbol of
quantity

Basic unit

L, l

Symbol of
unit

Meter

Kilogram

kg

Mass

M, m

Time

T, t

Second

Temperature

, T

Kelvin

Ampere

Electric current

1.2 Derived Unit

Other then the above stated units, is a group of so called derived units. As their name suggests
these units are products of combining several basic units. The ways they are combined depend on
how the quantities are related to the basic quantities. As for illustration, we will examine how
units for velocity and electric charge are derived as given below.
a) Velocity is related to two basic quantities namely displacement (measurement of length)
and time through an expression
v

displaceme nt
time

Hence the unit for velocity, v is meter over second, m s-1 as the unit for displacement is meter and
time is second.
b) Electric charge is related to two basic quantities namely current and time through an
expression
q = current x time
Hence the unit for an electric charge, q is Ampere-second , A.s or Coulomb, C as unit for current
is ampere and second for time.
The method to determine two derived quantities as given above is also applied for other derived
quantities. The units for several derived quantities are given in the table below.
Table 1.2: Derived quantities and their units

Derived quantity
acceleration
Force
pressure
energy
voltage
density
momentum

Symbol
a
F
P
E or W
V

Equation

Derived unit

v/t
ma
F/A
F.s
W/q
m/V
mv

m s-2
kg m s-2 (N)
N m-2
kg m2 s-2 (J)
J C-1 (V)
kg m-3
kg m s-1

As can be seen in the table, some of the derived units are given special names after their founder
such as Newton (N) for kg m s-2, Joule (J) for kg m-2 s-2, Hertz (H) for s-1 and Volt (V) for J C-1.

1.3 Other unit system

a) Centimeter-gram-second unit, cgs
Other then SI system, also under metric system, the cgs system is a unit system which based on
centimeter (cm), gram (g) and second (s) for length, mass (m) and time (t) respectively as
abbreviated.
b) Imperial (British) unit
The British engineering system, which is still widely used today, takes as its standards the foot for
length, the pound for force, and the second for time. Some equivalent measurements or
conversion factors of Imperial to Metric are given below.
Length 1 in
1 yd
1 mil

= 2.54 cm
= 0.914 m
= 1.61 km

Mass

= 453.6 g
= 28.35 g

1 lb
1 oz

Volume 1 gal = 3.786 L

1 mL= 1cm3

1.4 Conversion of units

To avoid confusion, the use of measurement units must be coherent through out the writing. It
means several units system should not be used at any particular scientific presentation. For
example in physics almost all levels the metric system is chosen over a British system. And
within the metric system itself the SI system is a well-known coherent system used in
mathematical calculation.

That is the quantities that to be put into the formula must be in SI unit. Any non-SI stated values
should therefore be converted to their respective SI unit. If the stated values are already in other
metric system, for conversion one needs to know the prefixes as given in the table below. And if
the stated values are in Imperial Unit System, conversion factor is required.
Table 1.3: Metric Prefixes

Prefixes
Nano
Micro
Mili
Centi
Deci
Deka
Hecto
Kilo
Mega
Giga

value

Abbreviation

10-9
10-6
10-3
10-2
10-1
101
102
103
106
109

m
c
d
da
h
k
M
G

Example
nano farad, nf
Micrometer, m
Milligram, mg
Centimeter, cm
decimeter, dm
decameter, dam
Hectogram, hg
Kilometer, km
Mega gram, Mg
Gig gram, Gg

Besides, the other type of conversion of units that is very important to understand is to change the
units from one prefixes to one another. For example if we want to convert from kilogram (kg) to
milligram (mg), we can use method below.

kg

1000

1000

1000

1000
1 kg
1kg

mg

= ? mg
= 1 1000 1000
= 1 000 000 mg

100

10
km

10

1000
cm

100

mm

1000

5 mm = ? km
5 mm = 5 10 100 1000
= 0.000005 km
Moreover, if we have units in square or cubic or else, we still can use this method. We just have
to put the power of the number to the value of conversions. Let say if the conversion need us to
convert from cm2 to m2 and m3 to cm3, just follow the method.

( 100)2
2

( 100)3
2

cm

( 100)2
10 cm2
10 cm2

= ? m2
= 10 (100)2
= 0.001 m2

cm3

( 100)3
45 m3 = ? cm3
45 m3 = 45 (100)3
= 45 000 000 cm3

Example 1
Convert the following quantities to their SI unit. Given that 1ml =1 cm3 and 1 mile = 1.609
km.
i) 20 km h-1
ii) 10 mg mm-3
iii) 15 ml min-1
iv) 60 mile h-1
Solution
i)

20 km h-1

= ____ m s-1

20km 1000m 1h

h
1km 3600s
= 5.6 m s-1
ii)

10 mg mm-3 = ____kg m-3

3
10mg 1000mm 1 10 6 kg

mm3 1m 3 1mg

= 10 000 kg m-3
iii) 15 ml min-1 = ____ m3 s-1

15ml 1cm 3 1 10 2 m

min 1ml 1cm 3

1 min

60s

= 2.5 10-7 m3 s-1

iv)

60 mile h-1 = ____ m s-1

60mile 1.609km 1000m 1h

h
1mile 1km 3600s
=26.82 m s-1

1.5 Coherency of Units

A valid physics equation should have coherent units on the both sides of the equation. We take a
well-known equation of E= mc2 that relate energy produced, E, with mass m and c is speed of
light for an illustration. Energy as we know has unit of Joule or kg m2 s-2. On the right hand side
of the equation mc2 has a combined unit of kg m2 s-2, which is similar to its left hand side. So the
equation has coherent unit on both sides and therefore it is dimensionally valid. Coherency of
units can be used to validate all physic expressions by comparing the unit on its left and its right
hand side. Applying the method it can be shown that the expression of E= mc or E= mc3 are not
dimensionally valid and cannot be accepted as two side of the equations have incoherent units.
The limitation of using units or dimension analysis for validating equation is that it cannot be
used on numbers or constants in the expression as numbers are not unit.
Example 2
a) Justify that F = mv2/r is dimensionally valid
LHS :

RHS :

mv 2
r

kg m s-2

ma

kg ms 1
m

kgms2

Unit on the both sides are coherent. Therefore the equation is dimensionally valid.
b) The force needed to move a plate in a liquid is stated as F= Av/ l where is the coefficient
of viscosity, A is the area of the plate and v/l is the velocity gradient. Determine the SI unit
for .

Fl
Nm

Nsm 2
1
2
vA ms m

1.6 Types of errors, their sources and characteristics

Non-conformity to the true value is caused by the error during the process of measuring which
may due to technique used, instrument faulty scale and environment. In measurements, there are
two types of error which are systematic error and random error.

1.7 Systematic error

If the errors are fixing to certain amount every time measuring are made, then it is called
systematic error. For example the zero error reading of a weighing scale that common in weight
measurement. The reading without any object placed on it should be zero, 0 kg, but due to the
tear and wear the reading would be for examples + 1 kg or 1 kg. In the case below the measured
mass must be minus by 1 kg as the system error found is +1 kg. If correction is not applied the fix
error will be inherited in all measurements made by the instrument. Similar problem will arise if
the instrument is not well calibrated to its actual scale.

Figure 1.2: The non zero reading without any object placed on a weighing scale
contribute to the systematic error.

Systematic error could be corrected or even eliminated. One has to aware and able to identify the
source of this error and adjustment could be made to the readings. For example, a student aware
the weighing scale used in measuring mass of few samples have zero error of +1 kg. He tabulates
the readings taken for correction as shown in the table below.
Table 1.4: Reading with and without correction for zero error

Sample

Reading without correction

for zero error

Reading with correction for

zero error of +1 kg

Sample A
Sample B
Sample C

3.5 kg
5 kg
6.7 kg

2.5 kg
4 kg
5.7 kg

In the above table, it shown that no matter what the mass of the object, in order to have greater
accuracy, the 1 kg must be minus from the measurement readings. If this is not done, the
systematic error of 1 kg contributed by the zero error will be included in the readings. This error
will go into other calculations.
If the calculation is based on the difference between the two readings, for example in the
calculation of slope, the error will be eliminated and so it does not affect the end result.

Measurements are made on a few samples of object of increasing masses using the same
weighing scale which are having zero error of certain values as a result of the measurement is
shown in the graph below. The corrected value is depicted by a dotted line. This graph illustrates
how the true readings are produced by elimination of the systematic error on the samples.
y (mass)

reading with systematic error

corrected readings with systematic
error eliminated

x (sample)

The systematic error causes the values to change by the same amount for each reading
therefore it does not change the linearity of the graph and hence does not change the
slope of the graph.

1.8 Random error

It is interesting to see what happen to the measurement made repeatedly when the dimension of
the object is not change. With the same technique and same instrument used, we may expect the
readings produced are all the same but surprising they are not. We observe that the readings vary
from one another. Variations of readings are due to what we called as random error. This kind of
error is not fixing and possible causes of errors are:
i)
ii)
iii)
iv)

Sighting the readings for example parallax

Environment such as different heating rate, breeze
Unstable measuring equipment for example analog voltmeter
Variation of the measured items itself.

Imagine you are measuring the diameter of a very long and uniform wire. Measurements are
carried out and repeated many-many times at different points along the wire. We can see we get
sets of similar reading but between these sets the readings are slightly differ from each other.
Each set have different percentage of repeatability (frequency) and the percentage becomes larger
as it comes to the true value of the diameter of the wire if there is no systematic error.
In random error, method of averaging could be used to address the error. The average value could
be closed to the true value.

X
N

10

1.9 Accuracy and precision in measurement

Accuracy is the degree of conformity of a measured quantity to its actual value. Precision is the
degree to which further measurements will show the same or similar results.
The target analogy by far the most common analogy used to compare the two terms. Repeated
measurements are compared to arrows that are fired to the target as illustrated in Figure 1a and 1b
below. Accuracy describes the closeness of arrows to the bulls eye at the target center. Arrows
that strike closer to the bulls eye are considered more accurate. The closer a systems
measurements to the accepted value, the more accurate the system is considered to be.
If a large number of arrows are fired, precision would be the size of the arrow cluster. When all
arrows are grouped tightly together, the cluster is considered precise since they all struck close to
the same spot, if not necessarily near the bulls eye. The measurements are precise though not
necessarily accurate.

Figure 1(a): High precision but, low accuracy

11

Figure 1(b): High accuracy, but low precision

Topic Summary
Basic quantities are fundamental quantities in physics that they are not derived or formed
by combination of other quantities.
There are only 5 basic quantities which are length, time, mass, temperature and current,
with their own unit.
Special form of metric system known as the System International or SI is now in general
use especially in communication and education.
Derived units are products of combining several basic units. They way how there are
combined depend on how the quantities are related to the basic quantities such as
velocity, acceleration, momentum and so on.
Uniformity of units system is needed in scientific writing and communication. The
uniformity is achieved through unit conversion.
Accuracy is the degree of conformity of a measured quantity to its actual value and
precision is the degree to which further measurements will show the same or similar
results.
Variations of readings are due to what we called as random error and if the errors are
fixing to certain amount every time measuring are made, then it is called systematic
error.

12

CONCEPTUAL QUESTIONS
1. A student in physics lab wants to measure a very small wire.
a) What do you think he should use in order to measure a diameter of a small wire?
b) If the equipment that he used to measure the wire is not calibrated at zero scale, what
should he do?
2. A valid physics equation should have coherency of units of the equation. Why?
3. What is the different between accuracy and precision? In playing dart game, which one is
better, accuracy or precision?

DESCRIPTIVE QUESTIONS
1. Give the definitions of the terms stated below:
a) Physical quantity
b) Basic quantity
c) Derived quantity
2. Determine unit for the following quantities. Express them in their basics unit.
a) weight
b) tension
c) electric resistance
d) rate of flow
3. State the unit for constant, c for the following expressions. All symbols used are of the usual
notations.
a) F= cv2/r
b) v = c
c) p = cv2
d) E = 1/2cv2
4. Given mv = Ft2, where m is mass, v is speed, F is force, and t is time. What are the
dimensions of each side of the equation? Is the equation dimensionally correct?
5. The gravitational force, F depends on the gravitational constant, G, the mass of the object, m1
and mass of the Earth, m2 and the distance between the Earth and the center of gravity of the
objects, r. derive a formula for the gravitational force, F.
(Unit for gravitational constant, G: N m2 kg-2)

13

COMPUTATIONAL QUESTIONS
1. Determine whether the expression given below is dimensionally valid.
a) E= hf
(E-energy, h-Planks constant (J s) and f-frequency)
b) 1/ = R (1/n2-1/m2)
(-wavelength, R-Rydberg constant (m-1), n and m are integers)
c) R = kSv2
(R- air resistance, k is a coefficient without unit, density, S - surface area and v-velocity)
d) E = mv3
(E - energy, m - mass and v - velocity)
2

Convert the following unit in metric system into their respective SI unit.
a) 70 km h-1
b) 75 liter min-1
c) 17 years
d) Distance of 2 light years
e) 90 nm
f) 68 g cm-3
g) 66 mm2
( Ans: 19.4 m/s, 1.2 x 10-3 m3 , 5.29 x10 8 s, 1.87 x 10 16 m, 9 x 10 -8 m, 6.8 x 104 kg/m3, 6.6 x 10 -5 m2)

3. Convert the unit of Imperial to SI unit

a) 5 yards
b) 90 feet
c) 90 lb
d) 90 lb-force
e) 100 square inches
(Ans: 4.57m, 27.432 m, 40.824 kg, 400.1 N, 0.065 m2 )

6. State the quantities below in their respective SI unit.

a) 30 cm
b) 80 g
c) 900 km
d) 60 mg
e) 40 cm2
(Ans: 0.3 m, 0.08 kg, 0.9 m, 0.06 g, 4 x 10-3 m2 )

7. Measurement of diameter of a wire is repeated 8times at different places by using

micrometer. The readings are 0.485mm, 0.490mm, 0.491mm, 0.480mm, 0.490mm, 0.484mm,
0.485mm and 0.492mm. The zero error of the micrometer is +0.020mm.
a) Eliminate the systematic error due to the zero error for each reading.
b) Determine the diameter of the wire.

14

8. A series of bands fromYoungs double slit experiment are shown below. Find the size of a
bright band by using method of averaging.

15