Introduction to Fundamentals

It is common in scientific texts to come across measurements that are given in S.I. units.
What does "S.I." stand for?

S.I. is an abbreviation of Syst&egraveme Internationale or International System: our metric

system of measurements.

It is an internationally standardised system, giving a common language between nations and

between the different branches of science and technology.

Over the next few pages, you will meet some of the S.I. units and the ways to modify them to
express any given measurement. As usual, you can follow the topics in any order (just keep
coming back to this page to jump to the link), or just go through in order.

The S.I. Base Units

The unit of measurement for any physical quantity is derived from a combination of the
seven base units. These base units are:

1. metre (m) -- length

2. kilogram (kg) -- mass
3. second (s) -- time
4. weight is the force exerted by amass as a result of its attraction to tthe force of gravity
5. kelvin (K) -- temperature

Prefixes and Foreign Languages

You are probably already familiar with the following conversions:

10 millimetres = 1 centimetre
100 centimetres = 1 metre
1000 metres = 1 kilometre

"Milli", "centi" and "kilo" are just three of the prefixes used to modify base units in the S.I.
system.
Prefix Translation
milli (m) 1/1000 or one thousandth
centi (c) 1/100 or one hundredth
kilo (k) 1000 or one thousand

So "1 millimetre" literally means "one thousandth of a metre".

Learning the S.I. units now becomes more of a language lesson than a mathematics lesson!
The next page shows the various prefixes that one is likely to come across while working
with measured quantities.

As you are reading through this table, notice that all the prefixes are multiples of ten. This is
one of the key properties of the SI system - it is a decimal system.

What Are The Prefixes?

The following two tables show the most commonly used prefixes for S.I. base units. Firstly,
we have prefixes that talk about multiples of a unit (i.e. more than one)...

Multiple Prefix Abbreviation

10 deca da

10^2 = 100 hecto h

10^3 = 1000 kilo k

10^6 mega M

10^9 giga G

10^12 tera T

Fraction Prefix Abbreviation

10^-1 = 1/10 deci d

10^-2 = 1/100 centi c

10^-3 = 1/1000 milli m

10^-6 micro

10^-9 nano n

10^-12 Pico p

10^-15 femto f
 10^-18 atto a

NOTES:

1. A notation like 10^6 means 10 raised to power 6, or a "1" followed by six "0"s (i.e.
10^6=1000000). We represent it this way because unfortunately superscripts are not
possible in this program.
2. It is important not just to get an abbreviation's letter(s) correct, but also to have it in
the proper case (upper- or lower-case). There is a big difference between 1 mm and 1
Mm!
3. mu.
4. Finally, notice how, except for the first couple of entries in each table, the prefixes
increase (or decrease) by multiples of 1000. Historically, it has been found that this
keeps measurements to a managable number of digits. For example, it is easy to tell
the size of 475.1 grams. However, to the nearest 1000, how big is 12650384? Notice
how you had to count the digits carefully? It could have been easier if I wrote this
number as 12650.384 x 10^3. Then you can quickly see that it is closest to 12 650 lots
of one thousand.

Length: metre (m)

The metre is the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of
1/299 792 458 of a second.

Mass: kilogram (kg)

The kilogram is equal to the mass of the international prototype of the kilogram: a piece of
platinum-iridium alloy kept at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, Sévres,
France.

Time: second (s)

The second is the duration of 9 192 631 770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the
transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the cesium-133 atom.

Thermodynamic temperature: kelvin (K)

The kelvin is 1/273.16 of the thermodynamic temperature of the triple point of water.

The unit kelvin and its symbol K should be used to express both thermodynamic temperature
and an interval or a difference of temperature.

In addition to the thermodynamic temperature (symbol T) there is also the Celsius (symbol t)
defined by the equation t=T-T0 where T0=273.15 K. Celsius temperature is expressed in
degree Celsius (symbol C). The unit 'degree Celsius' is equal to the unit 'kelvin', and a
temperature interval or a difference of temperature may also be expressed in degrees Celsius.
(The word degree and the sign o must not be used with kelvin or K).
Explanation during lecture time is critical of :

what weight is and how it arises

acceleration due to gravity

relative density and specific gravity

explain the derived quantities i.e. energy force work power heat velocity acceleration

energy is always equivalent to the ability to exert pulls or pushes against the basic forces
of nature, along a path of a certain length energy is the ability to do work. Energy is
measured in JOULES The total energy contained in an object is identified with its mass,
and energy (like mass), cannot be created or destroyed. When matter (ordinary material
particles) is changed into energy (such as energy of motion, or into radiation), the mass of
the system does not change through the transformation process. However, there may be
mechanistic limits as to how much of the matter in an object may be changed into other
types of energy and thus into work, on other systems. Energy, like mass, is a scalar
physical quantity. In the International System of Units (SI), energy is measured in joules,
but in many fields other units, such as kilowatt-hours and kilocalories, are customary. All
of these units translate to units of work, which is always defined in terms of forces and
the distances that the forces act through

Work :This is not to be confused with energy and it is the product force multiplied by
distance moved in a particular direction conceptually work is the amount of primary
energy converted into another form of energy now examples are needed to demonstrate
this concept it must be noted that the students must accept and under stand the distinction
between work and Energy this can be demonstrated by looking at some examples of
mechanical work and how it is calculated I unit of work is the same as for energy that is
in joules.

Power is the rate of doing work it is the ratio work done (j)/time taken (s) it is measured
in watts

Heat The heat energy of a substance is determined by how active its atoms and molecules
are. A hot object is one whose atoms and molecules are excited and show rapid
movement heat is measured in watts(Joules per second)

Velocity is the rate of change of distance in a particular direction velocity is in other

words the speed in a particular direction m/s

Accceleration is the rate of change of velocity m/s2

Temperature is a measure of the average ke of particles in an object

Imperial units to SI units Inter Conversion

Metric to Imperial Units Conversion
Metric & Imperial Units - Table and explanation of Metric and Imperial units.
Common Errors - Common metric errors and how to avoid them
Cooking Converter - Metric conversion for cooking

For accuracy, the converters below use the official conversion rates (which are up to 13
digits). However, for ease of use, the reference table (chart) under each converter rounds off
to the nearest 2nd digit.

Length Conversion

For length, there is no difference between USA and Imperial measures.

Imperial/USA unitMetric (SI) unit Metric (SI) unitImperial/USA unit

Inch 2.54 centimetres Centimeter 0.39 inches

Foot 30.48 centimeters Meter 3.28 feet

Yard 0.91 meters Meter 1.09 yards

Mile 1.61 kilometers Kilometer 0.62 miles

Weight (or mass) conversion

Imperial/USA unit Metric (SI) unit Metric (SI) unit Imperial/USA unit

Ounce (weight) 28.35 grams Gram 0.035 ounces

Pound 0.45 kilograms Kilogram 2.21 pounds

UK ton (2240 pounds)1.02 metric tons Metric ton (1000 kg.) 0.98 UK tons

US ton (2000 pounds) 0.91 metric tons Metric ton (1000 kg.) 1.10 US tons

The USA and Imperial systems of measurement use the same ounce and pound. The USA ton
(also known as the "short ton" is 2000 pounds, the UK ton (also known as the "long ton") is
2240 pounds, and the metric ton is 1000 kg.

In the metric (SI) system, the term mass is used instead of weight. Weight is a measure of
how heavy something is, whereas mass is a measure of the amount of matter. To illustrate,
something that weighs 60 pounds on the earth would only weigh about 10 pounds on the
moon (due to the lower gravity of the moon), whereas something the has a mass of 60
Kilograms on the earth would still have a mass of 60 kilograms on the moon (as the amount
of matter is unchanged). Consequently, the statement that 1 kilogram is 2.21 pounds is true
here on earth but not elsewhere (a point mainly of interest to scientists).Pressure or stress is
such that 1(ib/in2)= 6.894 *104 pa(ie Pascal or N/m2).
Pressure and Stress
Both have the same units ie Ib/in2and pa /(N/m2) stress in engineering is usually the force per
unit area acting in a material cross section pressure can refer to the force per unit area
exerted by a gas or liquid onto its container walls. Pressure can be the focce per unit area
exerted by an object on its support.

Stress or pressure=Force N /Area m2

Gravity
The first force we will investigate is that due to
gravity, and we'll call it the gravitational force. We
know that the acceleration due to gravity (if on Earth)
is approximately g = 9.8 m/s . The force, by
Newton's Second Law is
F=mg

where g is the acceleration due to gravity. Let's add

this to our diagram (Figure 3). Note that the force
vector, labelled Fmg, points downward, as this is the
direction in which the gravitation force acts.
Figure 3 Ship, with the gravitational force
labelled
Note that this force is commonly called weight. This
'weight' (m g) is different from our everyday use of
the word 'weight' (which is known in physics as
'mass').