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MODULE 1: Introduction &

MEASUREMENTs
CONTENT Measurement

CONTENT STANDARDS The learners demonstrate understanding of:

1. The effect of instruments on measurements

2. Uncertainties and deviations in measurement
3. Sources and types of error
PERFORMANCE STANDARD The learners should be able to:

Solve, using experimental and theoretical approaches, multi – concept,

rich content problems involving measurements, vectors, motion in 1D
and 2D Newton’s Laws. Work, Energy, Center of Mass, momentum,
impulse and collisions

PROGRAM GRADUATES All SPCEM Graduates can:

OUTCOMES
Accurately apply and integrate sound concepts, skills, processes,
technologies, and information from the major scientific disciplines to
develop and implement workable strategies that have a direct bearing
on their daily lives and decisions

ESSENTIAL LEARNING 1. Describe and explain the new Scientific abilities they have
OUTCOMES developed as the result of self-initiated learning experiences
and projects;
2. Initiate Science activities that show others that going beyond
their customary ways of dealing with things is clearly possible;
3. Explain the factors that generally affect their decisions and
actions, and assess the consequences they produce;
4. Take the risk of experimenting with combinations of ideas,
data, materials, and possibilities to derive and test potential
solutions to existing problems even at the risk of criticisms;
5. Search voluntarily beyond readily available technological
sources of information, resources, and standard scientific
techniques to generate new understandings towards workable
solutions to existing problems;

Week No.

Number of Hours

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 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Science is the search for relationships that explain and predict. It deals with
repeatable events and answers “how” rather than “why” questions of the universe. While
technology is the application of these relationships to meet human needs.
Biology, Chemistry, Logic and Sociology falls into the realm of science while Engineering,
Biotechnology are fields of technology.
Today, the field of science and technology were considered interdisciplinary in nature.
Research and Development, a scientific literature is an evidence of collaborative work of
science/scientist and technology/technologist.
Scientific Law and Theory
Law – is a statement that describes a natural event.
- it describe behavior.
Example: Newton’s First Law; under certain condition, that is no net force acting on an object,
an object at rest will remains at rest and an object in motion continues in motion with constant
velocity
Theory – is a reasonable explanation of observed events that are related.
- it is often involves an imaginary model that helps scientists picture the way an observer
event could be produced.
Example: Kinetic Molecular Theory, Impulse – Momentum Theory
Certainty in Science
In science, there is no absolute certainty. The validity of scientific conclusion is always
limited to some extent (e.g. method used; place of observation; instruments and person conducting
the experiment).
If a nurse took a patient’s temperature with a thermometer that read 1 0 too high, the
physician might reach an incorrect conclusion about the condition of the patient. The validity of
every measurement is limited by the precision of the apparatus used. Hence, it is important to keep
an open mind about the validity of scientific principles, theories or hypotheses. No amount of
experimental ion can ever probe any one of them absolutely. Whereas, a single crucial experiment
can be disprove any one of them. For this reason, according to Neil Bohr (1885 – 1962) once told
his classes, “Every sentence I utter must be understood not as an affirmation but as a question”.

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 Physics is concerned with the relationship between matter and energy.

Ultimate Goal: To explain the physical universe in terms of basic interactions

and simple particle.

MOTIVATION: A Party of Famous Physicists

Direction: Fill in with correct Physicist being describe in the story below, Write your answer on
the space provided. The portrait below are your choices for your answer.

A Party of Famous Physicists

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One day, all of the world’s famous physicists decided together for a tea luncheon.
Fortunately, the doorman was a graduate student and able to observe some of the guest…

 Everyone gravitated towards ____(1)_____, but he just keeps moving around at constant
velocity and showed no reaction.
 ____(2)____ thought it was a relatively good time.
 ____(3)____ got a real charge out of the whole thing.
 Cavendish wasn’t invited, but he had the balls to show up anyway.
 Caucky, being the only mathematician there, still managed to integrate well with everyone.
 Thompson enjoyed the plum pudding.
 Pauli came late, but was mostly excluded from things, so he split.
 ____(4)____ was under too much pressure to enjoy himself.
 _____ (5)____ spent most of the time resisting Ampere’s opinions on current events.
 Hamilton went to the buffet table exactly once.
 Volt thought that the social; had a lot of potential.
 Helbert was pretty spaced out for most of it.
 Heisenberg may or may not have been there.
 The Curies were there and just glared the whole time.
 Von der Walls forced himself to mingle.
 Wein radiated a colorful personality.
 Milikan dropped hid Italian oil dressing.
 ______(6)_____mostly just stood in the corner and waved.
 Hollerith like the hole idea.
 Stephan and Boltzman got into some hot debates.
 Everyone was attracted to Tesla’s magnetic personality.
 Compton was a little scatter – brained at times.
 _____(7)_____ ate too much and got atomic ache.
 _____(8)_____ burned out to be a powerful speaker.
 _____(9)_____ went back to the buffet table several times a minute.
 Faraday has quite a capacity for food.
 _____(10)____ got bombed.

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Motivation Activity (Answer sheet)
Direction: Write the correct name of the physicist and write the term that act as hint /clue to their
contribution to physics. (example: Thompson enjoyed the plum pudding, an atomic model that
describe the arrangement of sub atomic particles in an atom.
1. __________________________

2. __________________________

3. __________________________

4. __________________________

5. __________________________

6. __________________________

7. __________________________

8. __________________________

9. __________________________

10. _____________________

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 MEASUREMENTS

At the end of the module, you will be able to:

1. Solve measurement problems involving conversion of units,

expression of measurements in scientific notation.
2. Differentiate accuracy from precision
3. Differentiate random errors from systematic error
4. Estimate errors from multiple measurements of physical
quantity using variance

The system of measurement that is best suited to scientific purposes is the metric system.
The metric system is called the International System of Unites (SI Units).
In the system of measurement, it is best to distinguish physical quantities and unit of measure.
The physical quantity is the measurable aspects of the universe (length, volume, temperature, etc).
While the unit of measure is the accepted unit or scale used to measure a physical quantity.
Example meter is the unit of measure for length, gram for mass, meter / sec for speed.
Physical quantity can be classified as fundamental quantity or derived quantity. Derived
quantity is resulted or calculated by multiplying and dividing two or more fundamental quantities.

Selected Physical Quantities and Units

Standard Unit of length, mass and time
The SI system of unit is used in defining the standards of length, mass and time. This was
agreed by an International Committee in 1960.
In 1960, the standard unit of length is meter. It is equal to 1650763.73 wavelength of orange
– red light emitted by Krypton – 86. In October 1983, meter was defined as the distance traveled
by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299792458 m/s.

Vernier Caliper

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The standard unit for mass is kilogram. It is the mass of a cylinder of platinum iridium alloy, which
are 39mm in diameter and 39mm in height.

Direct Weighing
The second is used as the standard unit of time. It is defined as 9192631700 times the period of
oscillation of radiation from a cesium – 133 atom as its reference clock.

Conversion of Units
Conversion – the process of changing the unit of measure of a given physical properties without
changing its value.

Conversion Factors

1m = 39.37 in = 3.281 ft = 1.094 yd

1km = 0.6215 mi

1 mi = 5280 ft = 1.609 km

1 lightyear = 1 c.y = 9.461 x 10 15 m

1 in = 2.540 cm

1 L = 103 cm3 = 10-3 m3 = 1.057 qt

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 1 h = 3.6 ks

1y = 365.24 d = 3.156 x 107 s

1km/h = 0.278 m/s = 0.6818 mi/h

1ft/s = 0.3048 m/s = 0.6818 mi/h

1 rev = 2π rad = 3600

1 rad = 57.300

1 rev/min = 0.1047 rad / s

1 slug = 14.59 kg

1 kg = 2.205 lb

1 ton = 103 kg = 1 Mg

1 atm = 101.3 kPa = 1.013 bar = 76.00 cm Hg = 14.70 lb/in2

1N = 105 dyne = 0.2248 lb

1 J = 107 erg = 0.7373 ft.lb = 9.869 x 10 -3 L . atm

1 kW.h = 3.6 MJ

1 cal = 4.184 J = 4.129 x 10-2 L atm

1 eV = 1.602 x 10 -19 J

1 Btu = 778 ft.lb = 252 cal = 1054 J

1horsepower = 550 ft lb /s = 746 W

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 To have a better understanding of
the topic, let’s solve example 1.

Example 1: Cobalt is a hard magnetic metal that resembles iron in appearance. It

has a density of 8.90 g/cm3. What is the density in kg per cubic meter?
First, you identify the given data and what is asked/required in the problem.

Given : density = 8.90 g/cm3

unknown/ required quantity: equivalent density in kg per cubic meter

Solution:
Find for appropriate conversion factor 1 kg = 1000 g and 1m = 100 cm

But since the unit of volume in density is expressed in cubic centimeter, so you need to cube the
conversion factor 1m = 100cm. therefore you will have

(1m)3 = (100cm)3 , then by solving the cube of 1 and 100 you will have the value of :
1m3 = 1 000 000 cm3
Your equation will be
8.90 g x 1kg x 1 000 000 cm3 = 8 900 000 kg = 8 900 kg/ m3
cm3 1000 g 1 m3 1000 m3

Note: cancellation of units is required to arrive to the desired units

8.90 g/cm3 = 8 900 kg/ m3

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 Let’s have another
example.

Convert 5mi/h to km/min

Given : 5 mi /h = ? km/ min
Solution:
Find for appropriate conversion factor(s).

Conversion factor: 1 mile(mi) = 1.609 km and 1hour(h) = 60 minutes (min)

5 mi x 1.609 km x 1 h = 8.045 km = 0. 134 km/ m

h 1 mi 60 min 60 min

Now! You are ready to

take the activity for
conversion of units.

Activity1: Make the following conversions

1. 18.8 g/cm3 to kg/m3

2. 6.8 in2 to m2

3. 30cm3 to ft3

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4. The body mass index (BMI) takes into account your mass in kilograms and your height in
meters and is defined as follows:
BMI = mass in kg/(height in m)2

BMI Evaluation
Below 18.5 underweight
18.5 – 24.9 Normal
25.0 -29.9 overweight
30.0 – 39.9 Obese
40.0 and above Morbidly obese

Using your own weight and height. Calculate and evaluate your BMI?

5. Express the speed limit of 65 km /hour at Diversion Road, Mandurriao Iloilo in

meters/second.

6. If a hair grows at the rate of 1/32 inch per day. How fast does it grows in meter per second.

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 Accuracy and Precision
The measurement of physical quantity is always subject to some degree of
uncertainty. The reason for this are:
 Limitations in the construction of measuring device/instrument.
 Conditions where the measurement is made.
 Ways in which the person uses or reads the instrument.

Ways to Express Uncertainty in Measurement

A. Accuracy – refers to the closeness of measurements to the accepted value for a specific
physical quantity. It is expressed as either absolute or relative error.
B.
Ea =  O – A

Where Ea – absolute error

O – observed (measured) value
A – accepted value

Er = Ea x 100%
A

where Er – relative error

Ea – absolute error
A – accepted value

C. Precision – is the agreement among several measurements that have been made in the same
way. It is expressed as either absolute or relative deviation.

Da = O – M
where Da – absolute deviation
O – observed (measured) value
M – mean ( average of the set of readings)

Tolerance – the obtainable degree of precision of measuring instrument

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 Activity 2: You were practicing your skill in shooting and you had obtained the following
results as illustrated in the figures below, explain set shots you made in terms of accuracy
and precision.

A B C D

Write your answer and give an explanation for your answer on the space provided.

A:_________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

B._________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

C._________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

D._________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

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 Dimensional Analysis

In the process of quantification, it is necessary to use symbol and unit of

measurement for a given quantity.

To illustrate the process of

dimensional analysis, let’s consider
the given example below:

Density is represented by  (rho) and its unit is gram per cubic centimeter
(g/cm3). To find some quantities, the relationship between quantities can be expressed
as equation.

Example: Check if the given example is valid or NOT.

Given: m =  V
Solution:
1. Identify the given quantities in terms of symbol, quantity and unit/s.

symbol Quantity Unit

m mass kg

 density kg/m3

V volume m3

2. Check if the unit on the left side of the equal sign is the same with the unit/s on the
right side. Do cancellation of unit/s if possible.

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 To prove if the given equation is valid or correct, let’s check if we will arrived with
the same unit of measure(s) on both side of the equation.

?
m=V

by substituting the unit if measures to the physical quantities, our equation will be:
?
kg = kg (m3) ; since m3 / m3 = 1 , you can cancel the unit m3
m3

kg = kg m3 , so the final unit left is,

m3

kg = kg ; since you have the same unit left on both side of the equation,
therefore your equation m = V is valid

TRY
THIS!

Activity 3: DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS

Direction: Determine whether the following equation is dimensionally valid or NOT.

Where: x/Δx = distance (m)

1. x = vt2
v/ vo = velocity (m/s)

t = time (s)
2. x = vot +½at

3. v2 = 2a ( x)

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