PHYSICS IGCSE

CHAPTER 1: MAKING MEASUREMENTS (NOTES)

Physical Quantity: It is the property of an object or

material that can be measured using measuring
instruments. A physical quantity is expressed as a
magnitude (numeric value) and a physical unit. An
example of physical quantities can be: 20 cm, 50 kg, 21
m/s etc.
Physical Unit: A standard or unit must be chosen before
a measurement is made. The physical unit is a symbol or
character that helps to measure the physical quantities.
 The size of the quantity to be measured is found using
an instrument with a scale marked in the unit.
There are three basic quantities that are measured in
physics. They are length, mass and time. Units for
other quantities are based on length, mass and time.
There are two types of unit systems in the world. They
are the SI System and Imperial System. For IGCSE
Physics, the SI System of measuring is taken, as it’s
internationally used. Most countries use the SI System,
and only a few countries use the Imperial System.
Another important fact is that the SI System uses the
name of scientists as units (such as Newtons, Kelvin, Volts
etc.).
Quantity SI Unit Symbol Device
 Length Meter m Meter rule
Mass Kilogram kg Balance
Time Seconds s Stopwatch
SI System can be further divided into three sub-divisions.
They are C.G.S (centimeter, gram, seconds), M.K.S
(meter, kilogram, seconds) and F.P.S (feet, pound,
seconds).
LENGTH:
Length is the distance between two points. The basic
units of length are meter (m), kilometer (km), centimeter
(cm) and millimeter (mm).
1m: 100cm 1km: 1000m 1cm: 10mm
There are a few instruments that may be used to
calculate the length. It can be a meter rule, ruler or
measuring tape. For lengths less than one meter, a tape
measure is used. The micrometer screw gauge is used to
measure extremely small distances (up to 0.01mm).
Calipers are objects with sliding scalers that can measure
up to 0.1 mm.
In order to measure an object, the instrument must touch
the object being measured. The zero of the measuring
instruments must line up with the end of the object. You
must read with your eye directly over the scale of the
instrument, to avoid parallax error.
AREA:
Area is defined as the product of length and width
(breadth). It is the amount of shape a 2D object can
cover.
Formula of area: Area = Length x Width
 A=LxW
Units of area are square meters (m^2), square
centimeters (cm^2) and square kilometers (km^2). To
convert it to regular meters or centimeters, you can
simply multiply or use the calculator. For example 10m^2
is 100m (because of 10m x 10m).
VOLUME:
Volume refers to the amount of space an object takes up/
the space occupied by an object. The units of volume are
cubic meters (m^3), cubic centimeters (cm^3), cubic
millimeters (mm^3) and cubic kilometers (km^3). Also, 1
liter is equals to 1000 cm^3, so 1cm^3 is equal to 1 ml
(milliliter). You can find out the volume of an object using
the mathematical formulas like:
Formula of volume for regular objects:
Volume = Length x Width x Height
V=LxWxH
Formula of volume of a cylinder:
Volume = Pi x radius squared x height
V = π x r^2 x h
Another way to measure the volume of an object
(irregular or regular) is by dropping it in a measuring
cylinder, filled with water. Once the object has been
dropped, it will cause a displacement of the water.
Measure the rise/displacement of water and that will give
you the volume of that object.
Measuring cylinders are mostly used to measure the
volume of liquids. When measuring the volume of a liquid
from a measuring cylinder, make sure the cylinder is
upright and your eye is on the same level as the
meniscus. Read from the bottom of the meniscus always.
TIME:
Time is obviously the measurement of the moments
passed. The unit of time is seconds (s), minutes (min) and
hours (hr).
1 min=60 seconds 1 hr=60 minutes 1 day=24 hours
The interval of time is measured using clocks. The time
measuring devices use oscillations (moving back and
forth regularly). A stopwatch is usually used to measure
time. Make sure to choose a timer that is precise enough
for the task, like using a stopwatch for the pendulum
period or a millisecond timer for measuring the speed of
sound.
There are two types of clocks: Analogue clock and Digital
clock. Analogue clocks show hands/needles and is often
not very precise. Digital clocks display numbers and are
often very precise.
Measuring short time intervals:
Sometimes, you need to measure time intervals that are
quite short. Usually, a simple pendulum is used. The
pendulum has a heavy ball of mass called a plump bob,
hanging to it by a string. The string is clamped tightly by
two wooden jaws. If you pull the bob gently, it will swing
from side to side slowly.
The time for one oscillation of a pendulum (meaning
when it swings from left to right and back again) is called
its period. A single period is usually too short a time to
measure accurately. However, since a pendulum swings
at a steady rate, you can use a stopwatch to measure the
time for a large number of oscillations, like 20 to 50, and
then calculate the average time for per oscillation. The
calculate it, you must divide the time taken by the total
number of oscillations. An example can be:
Time For 20 Oscillations Time for 1 Oscillation
18.1s 0.905s (18.1 divided by 20)
25.1s 1.255s
28.3s 1.415s

SCALER AND VECTOR QUANTITIES:

Scaler quantity is a quantity that only has magnitude and
is defined by it. It has no direction.
Vector quantity is any quantity that has magnitude as
well as a specific direction.
SCALER VECTOR
Mass Weight (gravity)
Length Velocity
Time Acceleration
Temperature Displacement
Frequency Momentum
Speed Force

How to add vector quantities:

(1): The simplest way, is doing basic addition or
subtraction
 +5
N
Total Force: +5N + (-10N) = -5N
Means object will go 5N downwards
-!0
N

-6N
Total Force: (-6N) + (-10N) = -
16N -
10
Object would go -16N to the
right

(2) Use the Pythagoras Theorem (Or you can also use
trigonometric equations in some cases as well)
x^2 = 6^2 +
8^2
6N
x^2 = 36 + 64
x^2= 100
8
N x= 100/2 = 50N

(3) Or the result may even be an Equilibrium, which

means that the net force is equal to zero.

+10N

+5
N
 +5N +10N + (-
10N) = 0

- +5N + (-5N)
=0
So the object won’t move
(no force to push it)

DENSITY:
Density is defined as the mass per unit volume. Density is
the measure of how much mass there is in a given object.
Unit for density in M.K.S is kg/m^3 and in C.G.S it is
g/cm^3.
Formula for density:
Density = Mass/Volume
p = m/v
At constant mass, density is inversely proportional to
volume. So, the higher the volume, the lower the density.
And at constant volume, the density is directly
proportional to mass. So, higher the mass, the higher the
density.
Density changes with temperature, except water, which is
exceptional to heat. Density of gases depends upon
pressure as well as temperature.
To find the density of an object, you can place it in water.
Water has a density of 1000 kg/m^3, which is equal to 1
g/cm^3. If something has a higher density than water,
then it will sink and if something has a lower density than
water then it will float. This can also be done with liquids,
because if an immiscible liquid is added to water (like oil)
it will arrange itself in a way to form a layer either on top
or at the bottom of the water, depending on the density.

*There is a table on page 6, which has the densities of a

few different materials. It’s not very important to
remember, but you can go through it.
*Questions from the book are important. Revise and go
through the questions throughout the chapter, as well as
the exam style questions at the end of the chapter.
*Go through some notes online on this chapter for extra
revision
*Past papers and past paper questions on this chapter are
very important and helpful. You must go through them.