Lesson 1: Unit

Conversion
Unit Conversion & Scientific Notation
Introduction
Physicists, like other scientists, make observations and ask basic
questions. For example, how big is an object? How much mass does it have?
How far did it travel? To answer these questions, they make measurements with
various instruments (e.g., meter stick, balance, stopwatch, etc.).
The measurements of physical quantities are expressed in terms of units,
which are standardized values. For example, the length of a race, which is a
physical quantity, can be expressed in meters (for sprinters) or kilometers (for
long distance runners). Without standardized units, it would be extremely
difficult for scientists to express and compare measured values in a meaningful
way.
Physical Quantities
All physical quantities in the International System of Units (SI) are expressed in terms of combinations
of seven fundamental physical units, which are units for: length, mass, time, electric current, temperature,
amount of a substance, and luminous intensity.

SI Units: Fundamental and Derived Units

There are two major systems of units used in the world: SI units (acronym for the French Le Système
International d’Unités, also known as the metric system), and English units (also known as the imperial
system). English units were historically used in nations once ruled by the British Empire. Today, the United
States is the only country that still uses English units extensively. Virtually every other country in the world
now uses the metric system, which is the standard system agreed upon by scientists and mathematicians.

Some physical quantities are more fundamental than others. In physics, there are seven fundamental
physical quantities that are measured in base or physical fundamental units: length, mass, time, electric
current temperature, amount of substance, and luminous intensity. Units for other physical quantities (such
as force, speed, and electric charge) described by mathematically combining these seven base units. In this
course, we will mainly use five of these: length, mass, time, electric current and temperature. The units in
which they are measured are the meter, kilogram, second, ampere, kelvin, mole, and candela. All other units
are made by mathematically combining the fundamental units. These are called derived units.
 Table 1. SI Base Units

Quantity Name Symbol

Length Meter M
Mass Kilogram Kg
Time Second S
Electric current Ampere A
Temperature Kelvin K
Amount of
Mole Mol
substance
Luminous intensity Candela Cd
Metric Prefixes
Physical objects or phenomena may vary widely. For example, the size of objects varies from something very
small (like an atom) to something very large (like a star). Yet the standard metric unit of length is the meter.
So, the metric system includes many prefixes that can be attached to a unit. Each prefix is based on factors
of 10 (10, 100, 1,000, etc., as well as 0.1, 0.01, 0.001, etc.). 
 Table 2 Metric Prefixes and symbols used to denote the different various factors of 10 in the metric system

Prefix Symbol Value Example Name Example Symbol Example Value Example Description
Distance light travels in
Exa E 1018 Exameter Em 1018 m
a century
Peta P 1015 Petasecond Ps 1015 s 30 million years
Tera T 1012 Terawatt TW 1012 W Powerful laser output
Giga G 109 Gigahertz GHz 109 Hz A microwave frequency
Mega M 10 6
Megacurie MCi 10  Ci
6
High radioactivity
Kilo K 10 3
Kilometer Km 10  m3
About 6/10 mile
hector H 10 2
Hectoliter hL 10  L2
26 gallons
Deka Da 10 1
Dekagram Dag 10  g1
Teaspoon of butter
____ ____ 100 (=1)
Deci D 10–1 Deciliter dL 10–1 L Less than half a soda
Centi C 10–2 Centimeter Cm 10–2 m Fingertip thickness
Mili M 10 –3
Millimeter Mm 10  m–3
Flea at its shoulder
Micro µ 10 –6
Micrometer µm 10  m–6
Detail in microscope
Nano N 10 –9
Nanogram Ng 10  g–9
Small speck of dust
Pico P 10 –12
Picofarad pF 10 –12
 F Small capacitor in radio
Femto F 10–15 Femtometer Fm 10–15 m Size of a proton
Time light takes to cross
Atto A 10–18 Attosecond As 10–18 s
an atom
The metric system is convenient because conversions between metric units
can be done simply by moving the decimal place of a number. This is because
the metric prefixes are sequential powers of 10. There are 100 centimeters in a
meter, 1000 meters in a kilometer, and so on.
In non metric systems, such as U.S. customary units, the relationships are
less simple—there are 12 inches in a foot, 5,280 feet in a mile, 4 quarts in a
gallon, and so on. Another advantage of the metric system is that the same
unit can be used over extremely large ranges of values simply by switching to
the most-appropriate metric prefix.
For example, distances in meters are suitable for building construction, but
kilometers are used to describe road construction. Therefore, with the metric
system, there is no need to invent new units when measuring very small or
very large objects—you just have to move the decimal point (and use the
appropriate prefix).
Unit Conversion and Dimensional Analysis
A conversion factor relating meters to kilometers. A conversion factor is a ratio expressing how many of
one unit are equal to another unit. A conversion factor is simply a fraction which equals 1. You can multiply
any number by 1 and get the same value. When you multiply a number by a conversion factor, you are
simply multiplying it by one. For example, the following are conversion factors:

1 foot/12 inches = 1 to convert inches to feet, 1 meter/100 centimeters

= 1 to convert centimeters to meters,

1 minute/60 seconds = 1 to convert seconds to minutes

In this case, we know that there are 1,000 meters in 1 kilometer.

Now we can set up our unit conversion. We will write the units that we have and then multiply them by the
conversion factor (1 km/1,000m) = 1, so we are simply multiplying 80m by 1:
 Using Scientific Notation with Physical Measurements

Scientific notation is a way of writing numbers that are too large or small to be conveniently written as a
decimal. For example, consider the number 840,000,000,000,000. It’s a rather large number to write out. The
scientific notation for this number is 8.40 × 1014. Scientific notation follows this general format

x   ×   10y

In this format x is the value of the measurement with all placeholder zeros removed. In the example above, x is
8.4. The x is multiplied by a factor, 10 y, which indicates the number of placeholder zeros in the measurement.
Placeholder zeros are those at the end of a number that is 10 or greater, and at the beginning of a decimal
number that is less than 1. In the example above, the factor is 10 14. This tells you that you should move the
decimal point 14 positions to the right, filling in placeholder zeros as you go. In this case, moving the decimal
point 14 places creates only 13 placeholder zeros, indicating that the actual measurement value is
840,000,000,000,000.
Numbers that are fractions can be indicated by scientific notation as well. Consider the number 0.0000045. Its
scientific notation is 4.5 × 10–6. Its scientific notation has the same format

x   ×   10y

Here, x is 4.5. However, the value of y in the 10  factor is negative, which indicates that the measurement is a
y

fraction of 1. Therefore, we move the decimal place to the left, for a negative y. In our example of 4.5 × 10–6, the
decimal point would be moved to the left six times to yield the original number, which would be 0.0000045.
Concept Summary
1. Physical quantities are unit that describes the size of the quantity.
There are number that gives us the count of times the unit is
contained in the quantity being measured.
2. Physical Quantities are classified as fundamental and derived
quantities. Fundamental Quantities are the simplest form. Derived
Quantities are combination of fundamental Quantities.
3. Systems of measurement are Metric System of System International
(SI) and English System or British System of measurement.
4. Conversion of unit common method used is the factor-label
method.
5. Scientific Notation is a convenient way of writing very small or very
large numbers. To write in scientific notation, follow the form N x
10a, where N is a number between 1 and 10, but not 10 itself, a is
an integer (positive or negative number)