GENERAL PHYSICS 1

After going through the module, you are expected to:

 Solve measurement problems involving conversion of units, expression of measurement

in scientific notation
 Differentiate accuracy from precision
 Differentiate the three sources of errors in measurement

1. Which of the following is equal to 10 meters?

a. 10,000 cm c. 0.001 km
b. 32.8 ft d. 380.6 inches

2. It evolved from the metric system, provides additional and more accurate units of
measurements. Its features include decimalization and the use of prefixes.
a. English System c. International System of Units
b. Metric System of Units d. CGS System of Units

3. This type of error may result when weighing balances are used without being
calibrated.
a. Systematic Error c. Random Error
b. Gross Error d. Indeterminate Error

4. Which of the following statements exactly describe the picture below?

a. High Precision, Low accuracy

b. High Precision, High Accuracy
c. Low precision, High Accuracy
d. Low precision, Low Accuracy

5. 0.000000001097 is can be written in scientific notation as __________________.

a. 1.097 x c. 10.97x10-9
b. 1.097x10-8 d. 1.097x10-7

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 GENERAL PHYSICS 1

Units
Explain that Physics is an experimental science. Physicists perform experiments
to test hypotheses. Conclusions in experiment are derived from measurements. And
physicists use numbers to describe measurements. Such a number is called a physical
quantity. However, a physical quantity would make sense to everyone when
compared to a reference standard. For example, when one says, that his or her
height is 1.5 meters, this means that one’s height is 1.5 times a meter stick (or a tape
measure that is one meter long). The meter stick is here considered to be the reference
standard. Thus, stating that one’s height is 1.5 is not as informative.

Since 1960 the system of units used by scientists and engineers is the “metric
system”, which is officially known as the “International System” or SI units (abbreviation
for its French term, Système International).

To make sure that scientists from different parts of the world understand the
same thing when referring to a measurement, standards have been defined for
measurements of length, time, and mass.

Length
1 meter is defined as the distance travelled by light in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458
second. Based on the definition that the speed of light is exactly 299,792,458 m/s.

Time
1 second is defined as 9,192,631,770 cycles of the microwave radiation due to
the transition between the two lowest energy states of the cesium atom. This is
measured from an atomic clock using this transition.

Mass
1 kg is defined to be the mass of a cylinder of platinum-iridium alloy at the
International Bureau of weights and measures (Sèvres, France).

Table 1: The Seven SI Fundamental Units

Quantity Symbol Unit

Length L Meter
Mass M Kilogram
Time T Seconds

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 GENERAL PHYSICS 1

Electric current I Ampere

Temperature T Kelvin
Amount of substance N Mole
Luminous intensity Candela

Conversion of units
Discuss that a few countries use the British system of units (e.g., the United
States). However, the conversion between the British system of units and SI units has
been defined exactly as follows:

Length: 1 inch = 2.54 cm

Force: 1 pound = 4.448221615260 newtons

Table 3: System International Prefix

PREFIX SYMBOL FACTOR

Atto A
Femto F
Pico P
Nano N
Micro Μ
Milli M
Centi C
Deci D
Deka Da
Hecto H
Kilo K
Mega M
Giga G
Tera T
Peta P
Exa E

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 GENERAL PHYSICS 1

Table 3: Conversion Table

Unit Conversion (Temperature)

 Fahrenheit to Celsius

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 GENERAL PHYSICS 1

 Celsius to Fahrenheit

( x 1.8) + 32

 Celsius to kelvin

+ 273.15

 Fahrenheit to Rankine

+ 460

Example:
1. A snail moves 1cm every 20 seconds. What is this in in/s?

In the first line, 1.0cm/20s was multiplied by the ratio of 1in to 2.54 cm (which is
equal to one). By strategically putting the unit of cm in the denominator, we are able to
remove this unit and retain inches. However, based on the calculator, the conversion
involves several digits.

In the second line, we divided 1.0 by 20 and retained two digits and rewrote in
terms
of a factor 102. The final answer is then rounded off to retain 2 figures.

2. A jeepney tried to overtake a car. The jeepney moves at 75km/hour, convert this
to the British system (feet per second)?

75 x x = 246, 000
First we need to convert ‘kilometer’ to feet. 1 kilometer is equal to 1000 meters
and 1 meter is equivalent to 3.28 ft. take note that cancellation of unit should take place.

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 GENERAL PHYSICS 1

246, 000 x = 68.33

Second step is converting hour to seconds. 1 hour is equivalent to 3,600

seconds. Ever wonder why we divide instead of multiplying? The ‘hr’ in 246,000 ft/hr is
in denominator so to cancel the unit you must put 1hr on the numerator. You can’t
cancel a unit if they are both place in numerator or both place in denominator.

Scientific Notation
It is a way of expressing numbers that are too big or too small to be conveniently
written in decimal form.

Important Rules
1. The base is always 10
2. The exponent is a non-zero integer (may be positive or negative )
3. The absolute value of the coefficient is greater than or equal to 1 and strictly less
than 10
4. The coefficient carries the sign (+ or -)
5. The mantissa carries the rest of significant digits.

Example:
a. Transform 45,000,000 to scientific notation.

45,000,000 = 4.5 x107

Why did we write 7 as exponent? We move the decimal point until it is after the
first non-zero.

b. Transform 0.000000045 to scientific notation?

0.00000045= 4.5 x107

Why did we write negative 7 as exponent? We move the decimal point until it is
after the first non-zero and we move it from left to right so we will use negative
exponent.

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 GENERAL PHYSICS 1

A. On the space provided, write the following numbers in scientific Notation.

__________________________1. 2,650,000,000

__________________________2. 0.00000265

__________________________3. 3,409,000

__________________________4. 0.000765

__________________________5. 0.00000000456

B. Do the following conversion using dimensional analysis.

a. 4.00 in2 to cm2

b. 19.79 g to mg
c. -14 ⁰C to ⁰F
d. 10 yards to inches
e. 375 K to ⁰F

Accuracy and Precision

Accuracy
Indicates how close a measurement is to the true and accepted value.

Precision
It refers to the closeness of the measurements within a set of data. To assess the
precision in a data set, several trials are made during experimentation. The obtained
data should be close to each other regardless of the true value.

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 GENERAL PHYSICS 1

Figure 1: Dart representation of accuracy and precision.

C. Critical Thinking. Answer the following items.

1. Three experimental mass values of a certain objects were obtained: 54.66 g,

54.67g, and 54.668 g. If the accepted mass of the object is 54.6678 g, are the
measurements accurate? Are they precise? Explain your answer.

2. Four students performed an experiment to measure the density of aluminum

(27g/ml). Which data is accurate but not precise?

Ana Alex Sab John

2.924 g/ml 2.316 g/ml 2. 649 g/ml 2.701 g/ml
2.923 g/ml 2.527 g/ml 2.731 g/ml 2.699 g/ml
2.925 g/ml 2.941 g/ml 2.695 g/ml 2.702 g/ml
2.926 g/ml 2.136 g/ml 2.742 g/ml 2.698 g/ml

Source of Errors in Measurements

1. Systematic or determinate error
Systematic errors are errors that can be attributed to definite causes. They are
often reproducible and an affect the accuracy of the result. It may be classified as
operative, method and instrumental.
 Operative Error (Personal error) –caused by the incompetence of the experimenter

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 GENERAL PHYSICS 1

Example:
A color-blind experimenter performing color-dependent experiment

 Method Error – caused by non-ideal chemical or physical behavior of the reaction

system.
Example:
A reaction of interest does not go to completion
Impurities are present in the sample being tested
 Instrumental Error – caused by failures or imperfections of the measuring devices
Example:
Using weigh balance without being calibrated

2. Random or indeterminate error

Errors that is inherent to the measuring apparatus. They cannot be reduced by
the experimenter especially when finer measures are obtained. It affects the precision
of the measurements
Example:
Uncertainties in burettes or pipettes expressed as ± value.

3. Gross error
Gross errors are those errors that are severe enough that the measurement or
the entire analysis altogether has to be repeated.
Example:
Unnoticed spill of a substance while measuring its mass.

D. Determine what type of errors in measurements (Systematic Error, Random Error or

Gross error)
______________1. A plastic tape measure becomes slightly stretched over the years,
resulting in measurements that are slightly too high.
______________2. Scale that doesn’t read zero when nothing is on it.
______________3. Taking a volume read in in a flask and you read the value from
different angle each time.
______________4. A person thinks that the ¾” mark on a ruler is the 2/3” mark

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 GENERAL PHYSICS 1

______________5. Measuring wind velocity depends of height and time at which a

measurement is taken.
______________6. The experimenter forgets to push the tare button before contents
are placed in the container.
______________7. The experimenter did not notice that the sample is spilling.
______________8. Measuring length with metal ruler will give a different result at a cld
temperature than hot temperature due to thermal expansion
______________9. The experimenter did not follow the correct procedure in measuring
the sample
______________10. The experimenter used an inappropriate measuring device

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 GENERAL PHYSICS 1

Pretest

1. B
2. C
3. A
4. C
5. A

Test Your Mind

A. B.

1) 2.65 x 1) 25.81 cm2

2) 2.65 x 2) 19,790 mg
3) 3.409 x 3) 6.8 ⁰F
4) 7.65 x 4) 360 in
5) 4.56 x 5) 215..33 ⁰F

c.

1. The data collected are accurate and precise

2. Sab’s data is accurate but not precise

D.

1. Systematic Error 6. Systematic Error

2. Systematic Error 7. Gross Error
3. Random Error 8. Random Error
4. Systematic Error 9. Gross Error
5. Random Error 10. Gross Error

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 GENERAL PHYSICS 1

Bland,J. Martin, and Douglas G. Altman (1996). “Statstics notes: Measurement

Error.” BMJ 313.7059:744

Dodge, Y. (2003). The Oxford Dictionary of Statistical Terms. OUP.ISBN 0-19-

920613-9.

Bayquen. A.V., and Pena, G.T “ Exploring Life Through Science”, Phoenix
Publishing House

School Tutoring Academy (2012) https://schooltutoring.com/help/tag/what-is-

gross-error/

WatElectrical.com (2019) https://www.watelectrical.com/different-types-of-errors-

in-measurement-and-measurement-error-calculation/

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 GENERAL PHYSICS 1

Activity 1: Conversion of Units

NAME: __________________________________________________SCORE: _________________

SECTION: ___________________________________ DATE PERFORMED: __________________

Direction: On the space provided, write your complete solution neatly and box your final
answer.

1. Coach Sally brought 32L of water to the football game and she divided the water equally
between 8 coolers. How many milliliters of water did Coach Sally put in each cooler?

2. At science camp, the kitchen served half of their strawberries with breakfast. After dinner, they
put the remaining 5,270 g of strawberries did science camp start with?

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 GENERAL PHYSICS 1

3. Erin has 95 minutes to complete a test at school. The test starts at 1:59 PM and Susan has
volleyball practice at 4:00 PM. How much time will Erin have between the end of the test and
the beginning of volleyball practice?

4. Alastair and Noah go hiking. Noah brings 7/10 liter of water while Alastair brings 500 mL of
water. How many more milliliters of water did Noah bring than Alastair?

5. A barrel of juice is filled by 306 bottles of 0.7 liters. How many bottles of 300 mL would be filled
with the same amount of juice?

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6. Assume there are 100 million passenger cars in the UAE and that the average
fuel consumption is 20mi/gal of gasoline. If average distance traveled by each
car is 16,900km/yr, how much gasoline in liters would be saved per year if the
average fuel consumption could be increase to 25mi/gal?

7. You want to buy additional land with the shape of rectangle that has a width of
2,500 cm and length is 0.065 km. How much in peso you need to pay if the price
is Php 150,000/hectare?

8. Peter planted 220kg of potatoes and harvested twelve times more of them. How
many tons of potatoes has he harvested?

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 GENERAL PHYSICS 1

9. How much water in hectoliters flows within one hour through the pipe with a
diameter of 42mm at an average flow rate of 1.5 m/s?

10. The hose has an inside diameter of 4c and is 25 m long. How long from the
opening of the tap will it takes for the water to flow from the other end f the hose
if there is 30L of water per second pressed into it?

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