Chapter 2: Measurement: A Tool in Chemistry

What is measurement in science?

In the classical definition, which is standard throughout the physical sciences,
measurement is the determination or estimation of ratios of quantities. Quantity and
measurement are mutually defined: quantitative attributes are those possible tomeasure,
at least in principle.

When taking scientific measurements, it is important to be both accurate and

precise. Accuracy represents how close a measurement comes to its true value. This is
important because bad equipment, poor data processing or human error can lead to
inaccurate results that are not very close to the truth.

Importance of Measurements in Chemistry

SI Units

Scientific measurements use units to quantify and describe the magnitude of

something. For example, scientists quantify length in meters. However, because there
are many different units (e.g., inches, feet, centimeters), scientists developed SI units to
avoid confusion. Using common units, scientists from different countries and cultures
can easily interpret each others' results. SI units include meters (m) for length, liters (L)
for volume, kilograms (kg) for mass, seconds (s) for time, Kelvin (K) for temperature,
ampere (A) for electrical current, mole (mol) for amount and candela (cd) for luminous
intensity.
Accuracy and Precision

When taking scientific measurements, it is important to be both accurate and

precise. Accuracy represents how close a measurement comes to its true value. This is
important because bad equipment, poor data processing or human error can lead to
inaccurate results that are not very close to the truth. Precision is how close a series of
measurements of the same thing are to each other. Measurements that are imprecise do
not properly identify random errors and can yield a widespread result.

Significant Figures

Measurements are only as accurate as the limitations of the measuring instrument

allow. For example, a ruler marked in millimeters is accurate only up to the millimeter
because that is the smallest unit available. When making a measurement, its accuracy
must be preserved. This is achieved through "significant figures."

The significant figures in a measurement are all the known digits plus the first
uncertain digits. For example, a meter stick delineated in millimeters can measure
something to be accurate to the fourth decimal place. If the measurement is 0.4325
meters, there are four significant figures.

Significant Figures Limits

Any non-zero digit in a measurement is a significant figure. Zeroes that occur

before a decimal point and after a non-zero digit in a decimal value are also significant.
Whole number values, like five apples, have no impact on the significant digits of a
calculation.
Multiplying and Dividing Significant Figures

When multiplying or dividing measurements, count the significant figures in the

numbers. Your answer should have the same number of significant figures as the
original number with the lowest number of significant digits. For example, the answer
to the problem 2.43 x 9.4 = 22.842 should be converted to 23, rounding up from the
partial number.

Adding and Subtracting Significant Figures

When adding or subtracting measurements, determine the number of significant

figures by noting the placement of the largest uncertain digit. For example, the answer
to the problem 212.7 + 23.84565 + 1.08 = 237.62565 should be converted to 237.6,
because the largest uncertain digit is the .7 in the tenths place in 212.7. No rounding
should take place because the 2 that follows the .6 is smaller than 5.

Units of the SI System

There are seven base units in the SI system:

 the kilogram (kg), for mass

 the second (s), for time

 the kelvin (K), for temperature

 the ampere (A), for electric current

 the mole (mol), for the amount of a

substance

 the candela (cd), for luminous intensity

 the meter (m), for distance

Measurements

Chemistry is an experimental science that requires the use of a standardized

system of measurements. By international agreement in 1960, scientists around the world
now use SI Units (Systeme International d'Unites) that are based on the metric system of
measurements. SI consists of seven base units (See Table 1) which, when combined or
used with a series of Greek prefixes (See Table 2), leads to a series of derived units.
The important base units commonly used in chemistry:

Length:
The base unit of length is the meter (m) which technically is defined as the distance
light travels through a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 second, a complex standard. For
most measurements in a chemical laboratory, the meter is a large unit. The derived
units of centimeter (cm), millimeter (mm, about the thickness of a new US dime),
micrometer or micron (μm) and nanometer (nm) are used.
1 m = 100 cm = 1000 mm = 1,000,000 μm = 1,000,000,000 nm
 OR 1 m = 102 cm = 103 mm = 106μm = 109 nm

Mass:
The measure of the amount of matter is the mass, for which the kilogram (kg) is the
base unit. Again, the base unit is too large for most measurements in a chemical
laboratory, so the derived units of gram (g), milligram (mg) and microgram (μg) are
used. Although we often use mass and weight interchangeably, they are different.
Mass is the amount of matter; weight is the force exerted upon this mass by gravity.
You will, for example, have the same mass on Earth as in outer space but you will be
weightless in outer space, in the absence of gravity. The confusion is exacerbated
because mass units are commonly used in the metric and SI systems, but English
measurements are generally expressed in pounds, a unit of weight.
1 kg = 1,000 g = 1,000,000 mg = 1,000,000,000 μg
OR 1 kg = 103 g = 106 mg = 109μg
Temperature:

The Kelvin (K, which is read as "Kelvin" and not degrees Kelvin) is the base SI unit
of temperature. The Kelvin, like the more commonly used degree Celsius (°C), is one-
hundredth of the interval between the freezing and boiling points of water at
atmospheric pressure. They differ in the values assigned to these points; therefore
 K = °C + 273.15 and
°C = K - 273.15 A temperature of -273.15 °C or 0.00 K is absolute zero.
 Volume:
Volume is the amount of space occupied by an object and is the area times the length;
for a cube, this becomes length3. The common SI unit of volume is the cubic meter
(m3). Because the cubic meter is a large quantity in chemical laboratory measurements,
the cubic decimeter (dm3) and cubic centimeter (cm3 or cc) are used. The common
name for the cubic decimeter is the liter (L) and for the cubic centimeter is the milliliter
(mL). Therefore:
 1 m3 = 1,000 dm3 = 1,000,000 cm3 and 1 dm3 = 1 L = 1,000 mL

Density:
Density is defined as the mass per unit volume of any substance; using base units,
this is measured as kilogram per cubic meter (kg/m3). This is too large a unit for the
laboratory. Thus, density is typically expressed in grams per milliliter (g/mL) or grams
per cm3 (g/cm3) for liquids and solids and grams per liter (g/L) for gases.
It is extremely important to ensure that units are compatible; that is, the units are not
mixed SI or SI-English units. Dimensional analysis is the process used to assure that
different units of measurement are not used. For example, consider the rectangle shown
in Figure 1. Before its area can be calculated, the English unit must be converted to a
metric unit or vice versa.

PRECISION AND ACCURACY

Two terms used to express the uncertainty in measured units are precision and
accuracy. Precision is a measure of how closely the data agree with each other or how
close they cluster together. Accuracy is how close the measurements, or their mean,
are to the actual (true) value. Data can be accurate, precise, neither or, in the best case,
both. See Figure 3, below for examples of each of these situations.
SIGNIFICANT FIGURES
Science recognizes two types of numbers: exact and inexact. Exact numbers are
numbers that are defined such as 12 eggs in a dozen or 100 cents in a dollar or 1000 g in
a kg. These numbers are known to an infinite number of significant figures and will not
affect the number of significant figures when used in a calculation.
In exact numbers, however, are any number obtained by a measurement. Inexact
numbers thus contain some degree of uncertainty and only have a limited number of
significant figures. The degree of precision to which a measurement can be made is
reflected in the way that the number is recorded. Typically all the certain digits are
recorded plus one additional digit that has some degree of uncertainty in it, say
For example,
A measurement of 6 indicates a reading of between 5 and 7.
A measurement of 6.6 indicates a reading of between 6.5 and 6.7.
A measurement of 6.66 indicates a reading of between 6.65 and 6.67.

There are some rules to use when determining if a digit is significant or not.
1. All non-zero digits are significant. (ex. 2.34 = 3 sig figs)
2. All zeros between non-zero digits are significant. (ex. 30.067 = 5 sig figs)
3. Zeros before the first non-zero digit are never significant; they merely indicate the
position of the decimal point. (ex. 0.00089 = 2 sig figs)
4. Zeros at the end of a number and to the right of the decimal point are significant.
(ex. 9.100 = 4 sig figs)
5. If a number ends in zeros but has no decimal point, the zeros may or may not be
significant. In these cases, use scientific notation to clear up any ambiguity. (ex.
300 = 3 x 102 vs 300. = 3.00 x 102)
6. When using inexact numbers in calculations, you must calculate the uncertainty in
the resulting number. Although there are some very complicated ways to calculate
 uncertainty, we will simply be interested in the correct number of significant
figures.
7. There are two rules listed below. Remember, when using exact numbers such as
12 doughnuts in a dozen, 12 does not affect the number of significant figures in
the result.
8. When multiplying or dividing, the result contains the same number of significant
figures as the measurement with the least number of significant figures used in the
calculation. Ex. 1.001 x 2.2 = 2.2022 but with only 2 significant figures due to 2.2.
So the correct answer is 2.2.
9. When adding or subtracting, the result cannot have more significant figures to the
right of the decimal place than any original number. Ex. 2.023 + 4.71 = 6.733 but
with only 2 decimal places due to 4.71. So the correct answer is 6.73.