Physical Quantity

A quantity that can be measured and consists of a numerical magnitude and a unit.

Physical Quantity

Base Quantity
A unit that is not combined with one another or more physical quantities.

Derived Quantity
A combination of two or more base quantities.

Base Quantities
Base Quantity Length Symbol SI Unit Metre Symbol for the unit

Mass
Time

Temperature
Electrical current

l m t T I

Kilogram
Second

kg
s

Kelvin
ampere

K
A

Derived Quantity
A combination of two or more base quantities.
Physical quantity Volume Velocity Density Force Electric charge Symbol Relation with base quantity Length (m) X Length (m) X Length(m) Displacement (m) / Time (s) Mass (kg) / Volume (m3) Mass (kg) X Acceleration (m s-2) Current (ampere) X time (s) Formula V = l3 v = s/t = m/V F = ma Q = It SI units m3 ms -1 kg m-3 N C

V v

F Q

 The values of measurement in scientific studies normally involve numbers that are either very large or very small.

Such number are difficult to record or to read off.

Speed of light: =300 000 000 ms-1 The distance between the Sun and Mars =227 800 000 000 m

Scientific Notation
The form in the scientific notation is

M 10
300000000 ms

Standard form

3 10 3.2 10

8 11

0.000000000032m

Prefixes
Prefixes are used in the metric system to indicate fractions or multiples of SI units. For measurement whose magnitude is very large, prefixes such as kilo, Mega, Giga and Tera are used.

For measurement whose magnitude is very small, prefixes such as centi, milli, micro, nano and pico are used.

Prefixes
Prefix TeraSymbol T Standard Form 1012 Example Terametre (Tm)

GigaMegakilohecto-

G
M k h

109
106 103 102

Gigabyte (GB)
Megawatt (MW) Kilometre (km) Hectometre (hm)

dekadecicentimillimicronanopico-

da
d c m n p

101
10-1 10-2 10-3 10-6 10-9 10-12

Dekametre (da m)
Decimetre (dm) Centimetre (cm) Milligram (mg) Microwatt (W) Nanosecond (ns) Picometre (pm)

Complete the following:

Quantity (a) 28 000 000 000 bytes (b) 3675 000g (c) 0.000 000 24s

Standard Form

Prefixes Form Megabytes kg s cm

(d) 0.000000031 8m

2. Convert each of the following measurements into metres, m.

(a)1.55 X 10 -1 Tm (b)1.55 X 10-3 Mm (c)1.55 X 10-3 dm

(d)1.55 X 104 m
(e)1.55 X 10 pm

Physical Quantity

Scalar Quantity
Physical quantity that has magnitude but no direction

Vector Quantity
Physical quantity that has magnitude and direction

Examples:

Scalar Quantity
Length Mass Time temperature

Vector Quantity
Displacement Weight Velocity Acceleration

20N
30N

20N

30N

50N
Resultant force