Basic Quantities and SI Units.

Physical Quantities

A physical quantity is something which can be observed and measured.

Examples: Length, area, speed, weight, temperature, electric current.
All these quantities can be observed and their magnitudes or sizes can be
measured.
There are two categories of physical quantities : base quantities and derived
quantities.
Base quantity is the basis of a physical measurement and it is not a combination
of any other quantities.

SI Units.
Base quantities and base units
The table below shows the base quantities chosen fro the international System of
Units (SI) and their corresponding base units.
Table 1. Seven base quantities in System International (SI) unit.
Base quantities
Mass
Length
Time
Thermodynamic
temperature
Amount of substance
Electric current
Luminous intensity

Si Units
kilogram
metre
second
kelvin

Symbols
kg
m
s
K

mole
ampere
candela

mol
A
cd

A base quantity can be written in terms of prefixes to indicate power of ten factors
and to simplify pronunciation. Table 2 lists some of the prefixes that are
commonly used.

Table 2 : Lists of prefixes and its respective powers of ten.

Prefix
Symbol
Value

Tera
T
1012

Giga
G
109

Mega
M
106

kilo
k
103

centi
c
10-2

mili
m
10-3

micro

10-6

nano
n
10-9

pico
p
10-12

Unit Conversion
Example 1.1
Convert :
i.
110 km/h to m/s
ii.
340 m/s to km/h
iii.
15 cm2 to m2
iv.
1 g/cm3 to kg/m3
Solution
i.

km 1000m 1h
m

110

30.6
h 1km 3600 s
s