Preliminary concepts

Physics is the most fundamental physical science which concerned with the basic
principles of the universe.

Physics deals with matter in relation to energy and the accurate measurements of
natural phenomenon. Physics is a science of measurement.

Measurement consists of the comparison of an unknown quantity with a known fixed

quantity or Measurement is the act of comparing a physical quantity with a certain
standard.

Physical quantity is the quantifiable or assignable property ascribed to a natural

phenomenon or body. E.g. length, mass, time…

Physical quantities are described either by specifying how it is measured or by stating

how it is calculated from other measurements.

Basic physical quantity: This cannot be expressed in terms of any other physical quantity.

Derived physical quantity: can be expressed in terms of basic/fundamental physical

quantity.

The study of physics can be divided in to six areas:

Classical Mechanics: deals with the motion of particles that are large relative to
atoms and moves at speed much slower than the speed of light.

Relativity: A theory describing objects moving at any speed, even speed approaching
to the speed of light.

Thermodynamics: deals with heat, work, temperature and the statistical behavior of
systems with large number of particles.

Electromagnetism: Concerned with electricity, magnetism and electromagnetic

fields.

Optics: Study of the behavior of light and its interaction with matter/materials

Quantum Mechanics: deals with a collection of theories connecting the behavior of

matters at sub-microscopic level to macroscopic observation.
 Uncertainty in Measurement and Significant Digits

Measurements are always uncertain, but it was always hoped that by designing a better
and better experiment we can improve the uncertainty without limits. No measurement of
a physical quantity can be entirely accurate.

Uncertainty gives the range of possible values of the measure and, which covers the
true value of the measure. Thus uncertainty characterizes the spread of measurement
results.
All measurements always have some uncertainty. We refer to the uncertainty as the
error in the measurement. Errors fall into two categories:

1. Systematic Error - errors resulting from measuring devices being out of calibration. Such
measurements will be consistently too small or too large. These errors can be eliminated by
pre-calibrating against a known, trusted standard.

2. Random Errors - errors resulting in the fluctuation of measurements of the same quantity
about the average. The measurements are equally probable of being too large or too small.
These errors generally result from the fineness of scale division of a measuring device.

Significant digits

Whenever you make a measurement, the number of meaningful digits that you write down
implies the error in the measurement.

Rules for significant digits:

Rule 1: When approximate numbers are multiplied or divided, the number of

significant digits in the final answer is the same as the number of significant digits in
the least accurate of the factors.

Example:

 Least significant factor (45) has only two (2) digits so only two are justified in the
answer. The appropriate way to write the answer is
Rule 2: When approximate numbers are added or subtracted, the number of
significant digits should equal the smallest number of decimal places of any term in
the sum or difference.
 Example:

Note that the least precise measure is 8.4cm. Thus, answer must be to nearest tenth of cm
even though it requires 3 significant digits. The appropriate way to write the answer is
15.2cm.
In general, to determine significant digits in a given number
All non-zero numbers are significant.
Zeros within a number are always significant.
Zeros that do nothing but set the decimal point are not significant. Both 0.000098 and
0.98 contain two significant figures.
Zeros that aren’t needed to hold the decimal point are significant. For example, 4.00
have three significant figures.
Zeros that follow a number may be significant. Example: 3.70 have three significant
figures.

Vectors and Scalar quantities

Physical quantities can generally be classified as (i) Scalars and (ii) Vectors.

Scalars are physical quantities which possess only magnitude and no direction in space.
Examples are mass, time, temperature, volume, speed etc.

Vectors are physical quantities which have both magnitude and direction in space. Examples
are force, velocity, acceleration, etc.

Vector Algebra (Vector representation)

We can represent vectors by both algebraic and Geometric methods.

1. Algebraic method: Vectors are represented algebraically by letter (or symbol) with
an arrow over its head. Also vectors are represented by bold face letter.
Example: ⃗ ⃗ ⃗⃗ ⃗ ⃗
2. Geometric method: We always draw a vector as a line with an
arrowhead at its tip. The length of the line shows the vector’s
magnitude, and the direction of the line shows the vector’s direction.

Components of vector
The graphical method of adding vector is not recommended whenever high accuracy is
required or in three-dimensional problems. In this section, we describe a method of adding
vectors that makes use of the projections of vectors along coordinate axes. These projections
are called the components of the vector. Any vector can be completely described by its
components.
Consider a vector A lying in the x-y plane and making
an arbitrary angle with the positive x-axis, as shown in
Figure below.
This vector can be expressed as the sum of two other
vectors Ax and Ay.
⃗ ⃗ ⃗ ̂ ̂

Vectors ⃗ ⃗ are called vector components of ⃗, ̂ ̂ are unit vectors along the x-
axis and y-axis respectively.

These components form two sides of a right triangle with a hypotenuse of length A. Thus, it
follows that the magnitude and direction of A are related to its components through the
expressions:

( )

Note that the signs of the components and depend on the angle

Unit vector
 Is a vector that has a magnitude of exactly one ( ) and specify a particular direction.
 It is usually denoted with a ‘hat’
⃗ ̂
For three dimensions we shall use the symbols ̂ ̂ ̂ to represent unit vectors pointing
in the positive x, y, and z directions, respectively.
Any vector can be expressed in terms of unit vectors.

Consider, for instance, a vector A with components 𝑨𝒙, 𝑨𝒚, and 𝑨𝒛, and

𝑨 ̂ ̂ ̂
Vector Addition

A single vector that is obtained by adding two or more vectors is called resultant vector and
it is obtained using the following methods
1. Graphical method of vector addition
Graphically, vectors can be added by joining their head to tail. The resultant vector is the
vector drawn from the tail of the first vector to the head of the last
vector.
➢ In Figure 1 graphical technique of vector addition is applied to
add three vectors.
The resultant vector R = A + B + C is the vector that completes the
polygon.
In other words, R is the vector drawn from the tail of the first vector to the tip of the last
vector.
2. Parallelogram law of vector addition.
The parallelogram law states that the resultant R of two
vectors A and B is the diagonal of the parallelogram for
which the two vectors A and B becomes adjacent sides.
➢ All three vectors A, B and R are concurrent as shown in
Figure 2.
The magnitude of the diagonal (resultant vector) is obtained using cosine law and direction
(i.e. the angle that the diagonal vector makes with the sides) is obtained using the sine law.
√

3. Vector addition in Unit Vector Notation

Consider any two vectors; ⃗ ̂ ̂ ̂ ⃗⃗ ̂ ̂ ̂

⃗ ⃗⃗ ( )̂ ( )̂ ( )̂

Magnitude of ⃗ ⃗⃗ is given by:

|⃗ ⃗⃗ | √( ) ( ) ( )
Multiplying a Vector by a Scalar

If vector A is multiplied by a positive scalar quantity m, then the product 𝑨 is a vector that
has the same direction as A and magnitude mA.

If vector A is multiplied by a negative scalar quantity m, then the product mA is

directed opposite A.
Example, the vector 5A is five times as long as A and points in the same direction as 𝑨;

the vector is one-third the length of A and points in the direction opposite A.

Scalar Product and Vector Product of Two Vectors

For any two vectors ⃗ and ⃗⃗ shown in the Figure below, note
that we have drawn the two vectors so that their tails are at the
same point and the angle between the two vectors has been
labelled .
The scalar product of any two vectors A and B is a scalar quantity equal to the
product of the magnitudes of the two vectors and the cosine of the angle between
them:
⃗ ⃗⃗

 Note that A and B need not have the same units.

 The dot product can be positive, negative and zero based on the angle between them.
Their cross (vector) product is given as:
⃗ ⃗⃗ ̂

̂ a unit vector perpendicular to the plane of A and B and its direction is determined
by right hand rule.
In a unit vector form; for any two vectors ⃗ ̂ ̂ ̂ ⃗⃗ ̂ ̂ ̂

⃗ ⃗⃗

⃗ ⃗⃗ ( )̂ ( )̂ ( )̂
The cross product of any two vectors A and B can be expressed in determinant form as
follow:

̂ ̂ ̂
⃗ ⃗⃗ | | ( )̂ ( )̂ ( )̂
Properties of dot and cross product
Dot product Cross product
Commutative A.B=B.A Not commute 𝑨 𝑨
Obeys distributive law of multiplication Obeys distributive law of multiplication
A.(B+C)=A.B+A.C 𝑨 ( ) 𝑨 𝑨
If 𝑨 𝑨 If |𝑨 |
If 𝑨 𝑨 𝑨 ( ) If 𝑨 𝑨
𝑨 𝑨 ( )

̂ ̂ ̂ ̂ ̂ ̂ ̂ ̂ ̂ ̂ ̂ ̂

̂ ̂ ̂̂ ̂ ̂ ̂ ̂ ̂
̂ ̂ ̂
̂ ̂ ̂