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    Physical Quantities

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    This document defines physical quantities and provides examples. It discusses that physical quantities have a numerical value and unit, like 3 kg of mangoes. It defines physical quantities as characteristics that are quantified through measurement. Physical quantities can be fundamental, like length, mass and time, or derived, like force and velocity. Fundamental units are the base SI units used to define other units. Derived units are combinations of fundamental units, like meters/second for velocity. The document provides several examples of fundamental and derived units.

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    Physical Quantities

    Uploaded by

    Coordinator Bangalore
    39 views6 pages
    This document defines physical quantities and provides examples. It discusses that physical quantities have a numerical value and unit, like 3 kg of mangoes. It defines physical quantities as characteristics that are quantified through measurement. Physical quantities can be fundamental, like length, mass and time, or derived, like force and velocity. Fundamental units are the base SI units used to define other units. Derived units are combinations of fundamental units, like meters/second for velocity. The document provides several examples of fundamental and derived units.

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    This document defines physical quantities and provides examples. It discusses that physical quantities have a numerical value and unit, like 3 kg of mangoes. It defines physical quantities as characteristics that are quantified through measurement. Physical quantities can be fundamental, like length, mass and time, or derived, like force and velocity. Fundamental units are the base SI units used to define other units. Derived units are combinations of fundamental units, like meters/second for velocity. The document provides several examples of fundamental and derived units.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    39 views6 pages

    Physical Quantities

    Uploaded by

    Coordinator Bangalore
    This document defines physical quantities and provides examples. It discusses that physical quantities have a numerical value and unit, like 3 kg of mangoes. It defines physical quantities as characteristics that are quantified through measurement. Physical quantities can be fundamental, like length, mass and time, or derived, like force and velocity. Fundamental units are the base SI units used to define other units. Derived units are combinations of fundamental units, like meters/second for velocity. The document provides several examples of fundamental and derived units.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 6

    Physical Quantities: Definition,

    Examples and Derived Quantities


    Physical Quantities: Every day we deal with measurement and analysis in our daily life.
    The physical quantity example is when we go out to buy fruits or vegetables, we measure
    the amount of the things we wish to buy and pay for them accordingly. This measured
    value has a number and a unit associated with it, for
    example, 3 kg3 kg mangoes, 1 kg1 kgtomatoes, 500 g500 g coriander etc. Measurement
    helps us determine the amount of a given set of objects.
    To express this measurement, we first need a quantity to associate everything we are
    measuring, and these quantities must be different for different kinds of measurements.
    These quantities that help us to express the measured quantity in a way that is understood
    by all are known as physical quantities. Life before these physical quantities involved
    ambiguity, and the expression of measurement could not be done uniquely, leading to a
    lot of confusion and chaos.

    What are Physical Quantities?


    A physical quantity can be defined as the characteristic property of a system that is
    generally quantified in terms of measurement. Thus, we can express a physical quantity
    as the algebraic multiplication involving the product of a numerical value and its unit. 

    Physical Quantity Example


    The physical quantity associated with length can be written as 𝑥 x metermeter,
    where 𝑥 x is the numerical value, and the metermeterspecifies the unit. Thus, all physical
    quantities have at least two features: A numerical factor and a unit in which we are
    expressing the given measurement.

    There is an immense number of phenomena and objects that we study in physics and
    engineering. These range from a tiny duration of the lifetime of an atomic nucleus to the
    present age of the universe, from the diameter of an amoeba to the diameter of the sun,
    from the energy required to lift a pen to the energy released post a nuclear reaction,
    where the small and large quantities may be related to each other in terms of millions of
    powers of 1010.
    The numerical values provide a much deeper understanding of physical quantities and
    equations than just the qualitative description. Based on how these quantities are
    described, physical quantities can be categorized into:
    1. Fundamental quantities
    2. Derived quantities

    Fundamental Units of Physical Quantities


    A unit of a physical quantity can be described as a standard chosen arbitrarily, which is
    used to estimate the physical quantities that belong to the same kind of measurement.
    Since physical quantities can be minute or even extremely large thus, units play an
    important role while writing the expression of the given measurement. Although various
    systems of units have been developed over the years, to avoid any confusion, the
    international system of units or SI system was developed. 

    In the absence of such an internationally accepted system, it was tough for scientists to
    compare the physical quantities and share their findings across boundaries. For example,
    the length of a room can be expressed in terms of meters, kilometres, centimetres, feet,
    etc. These units are related to each other and can be converted into each other; without
    such well-defined units, it would have been difficult to express such a quantity.

    Fundamental Quantities
    The physical quantities that are independent of other physical quantities are called
    Fundamental quantities. These are also known as base quantities and are used to express
    other quantities. These quantities can be broken down further and can be used to
    determine various other physical quantities. The fundamental quantities are:

    1. Length
    2. Mass
    3. Time
    4. Electric current
    5. Temperature
    6. Amount of substance
    7. Luminous Intensity
    Supplementary quantities:

    1. Plane Angle
    2. Solid Angle

    Fundamental Units
    The units that are associated with fundamental quantities are known as fundamental
    units. These are the base units that can not be derived from the other units and are
    defined using an international system of units. The fundamental units are:

    1. Meter – represented by mm. It is the fundamental unit of length. Initially, One


    meter was defined as a quantity that is 1650763.731650763.73 times the
    wavelength of the light emitted in a vacuum due to electronic transition
    from 2𝑝 102p10 state to 5𝑑 55d5state in Krypton-8686. The 17th17th General
    Assembly of weights and measures, in 19831983, adopted a new definition for the
    meter. This definition was given in terms of the velocity of light. Thus, presently
    a meter can be defined as the distance covered by a ray of light in a vacuum
    during a time duration equal to 1/299,792,4581/299,792,458 of a second.
    2. Second – represented by ss. It is the fundamental unit of time. One second is
    defined as the duration of 91926317709192631770periods of the radiation
    corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground
    state of caesium-133133 atoms.
    3. Kilogram – represented by kgkg. It is the fundamental unit of mass. One
    kilogram was initially defined as the mass of a cylinder composed of platinum-
    iridium alloy, kept in the International Bureau of weights and measures, preserved
    at Serves near Paris. Now, it is defined using the fixed value of Planck’s constant.
    4. Ampere – represented by AA. It is the fundamental unit of electric current. One
    ampere is the amount of current flowing through each of the two parallel
    conductors, having an infinite length and negligible area of cross-section when
    placed one meter apart in a vacuum, each conductor will experience a force equal
    to 2×10−7N2×10−7N per unit length.
    5. Kelvin – represented by KK. It is the fundamental unit of temperature. One
    kelvin is defined as the temperature which is equal to the fraction
    of 1/273.161/273.16 of the thermodynamic temperature of the triple point of
    water.
    6. Candela – represented by cdcd. It is the fundamental unit of luminous intensity.
    One candela is defined as the luminous intensity in the direction which is
    perpendicular to the direction of a surface of a black body having a cross-
    sectional area equal to 1/600000 m21/600000 m2, when kept at the temperature of
    solidifying platinum and under a pressure of 101325Nm−2101325Nm−2.
    7. Mole – represented by molmol. It is the fundamental unit of the amount of
    substance. One mole is defined as the amount of a substance of a system
    containing as many elementary entities as there are atoms
    in 12×10−3  kg12×10−3 kg of carbon −12−12.
    8. Radian – represented by radrad. It is the fundamental unit of plane
    angle. 1rad=57∘17′45′′1rad=57∘17′45′′. One radian is defined as the angle made
    by an arc of the circle equal to its radius at the centre.
    9. Steradian – represented by srsr. It is the fundamental unit of solid angle. One
    steradian is defined as the angle subtended at the centre of a sphere of a unit
    radius by a surface having the area equal to the square having side length equal to
    the radius of the square. The solid angle of a sphere at its centre
    is 4𝜋4π steradians.

    Derived Quantities
    The physical quantities can not be defined on their own and can be broken down into
    base quantities. These are dependent quantities. The derived physical quantities are
    expressed in terms of the fundamental quantities. A few examples of derived quantities
    are Force, velocity, pressure, volume, density, etc.

    Derived Units
    The units that are derived using various combinations of fundamental units are called
    derived units. Since these units are derived using the base units, that is why they are
    known as “derived” units. These units can be broken down. The units of the derived
    physical quantities are sometimes assigned a name; for example, the SI unit of pressure
    is N/m2N/m2, termed as pascal (Pa) or SI unit of force is kgms−2kgms−2. Which is also
    known as newton (N).

    How to Find the Derived Unit of a Quantity


     Step 1: Write the formula of the quantity whose unit you wish to derive.
     Step 2: Substitute the units of all the quantities involved in the formula.
     Step 3: All quantities’ units should be written in one chosen system of units,
    preferably in the fundamental or standard form.
     Step 4: The expression containing all the units is simplified to compute the final
    unit of the given derived quantity. Simplify for the derived unit of the quantity to
    compute its final unit.
    Let’s try it: Compute the unit of acceleration.
    Solution: Acceleration is a derived physical quantity.
    Acceleration=  velocity  time Acceleration= velocity  time 
    S.Iunitofacceleration=  SI unit of velocity  SI unit of time =ms–1s=m/s 2S.Iunitofacceleration= SI unit
    of velocity  SI unit of time =ms–1s=m/s2
    Thus, the SI unit of acceleration is m/s2m/s2.

    Writing the Units of Physical Quantities


    The following rules must be kept in mind before we write the units of the physical
    quantities.

     Rule 1: The first letter of the full name of the units must never start with a capital
    letter, even when the units are named after a scientist. For example, the unit of
    force is written as- newton, unit of power is written as- watt, unit of current is
    written as- ampere, unit of length is written as- meter.
     Rule 2: We can represent the unit of a physical quantity using its full name or by
    the internationally agreed symbol.
     Rule 3: Always avoid writing units in plurals. It is wrong. For
    example, 10meter10meter is correct, but 10meters10meters is
    incorrect, 25 kg25 kg is correct, but 25kgs25kgs is incorrect.
     Rule 4: We never add a full stop or a punctuation mark at the end of the symbol
    of a given unit. For example, 10 N10 N is correct, but 10 N10 N. is incorrect.

    Some Important Terms


    1. Fermi: Used to measure nuclear distances, 11 fermi =10−15  m=10−15 m
    2. Angstrom: Used to measure the wavelength of light, 1Å=10−10 m1Å=10−10 m
    3. Astronomical Unit: Used to measure the mean distance between the sun and
    earth, 1AU=1.5×1011 m1AU=1.5×1011 m
    4. Light Year: Used for measuring astronomical distances. It is the distance
    travelled by light in one year, 1ly=9.4605×1015 m1ly=9.4605×1015 m
    5. Parsec: Used to measure the distance between
    galaxies, 1Parsec1Parsec =3ly=3.084×10 16 m=3ly=3.084×1016 m
    6. Barn: Used to measure scattering cross-section area of
    collisions, 1barn1barn =10−28 m2=10−28 m2
    7. Two instruments that are used for measuring time are Chronometer and
    Metronome. Time is the only quantity with the same unit (second) in all the unit
    systems.

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