The goals of Physics or Physicist is to express everyday happenings in a concise mathematical formula. These formulas are then used by other Physicist and engineers to predict results of their experiments. For example Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727) found the laws behind the motion of bodies, we now use these laws to design rockets that travel to moon and other planets.
Another major thing that Physicists do is to revise the laws from time to time depending on experimental results. Isaac Newton found laws of motion in the 17th century, these laws worked at normal speeds, but when a object's speed is comparable to that of speed of light, these laws fails. Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955), put forward the theory of relativity which gives the same result of Newton's laws of motion at slow speeds and far accurate results to speeds that go up to the speed of light.
Definition: "MEASUREMENT"is the determination of the size or magnitude of something "Or" The comparison of unknown quantity with some standard quantity of the same rates is known as measurement
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Measurement
Measurement is integral part of Physics like any other scientific subject. Measurement is a integral part of human race, without it there will be no trade, no statistics. You can see the philosophy of measurement in little kids who don't even know what math is. Kids try to compare their height, size of candy, size of dolls and amount of toys they have. All these happen even before they know math. Math is built into our brains even before we start to learn it.Math provides a great way to study about anything, that's why we see computers involved in almost anything because they are good at math.Scale
Scales are used to measure. One would know a simple ruler or tape could be used to measure small distances, your height and possibly much more in Physics we do have certain scales for certain quantities which we would see very shortly.Length, Mass and Time
The current system of units has three standard units: The meter, kilogram, and second. These three units form the mks-system or the metric system.A meter is a unit of length, currently defined as the distance light travels within 1/299782458th of a second.
A kilogram is a unit of mass. While it was previously defined as a specific volume of water (e.g. 1 Liter or a 10cm^3 cube), it's current definition is based on a prototype platinum-iridium cylinder.
A second is a unit of time. Originally defined as the amount of time the earth needs to make 1/86400 of a rotation, it is now defined as 9192631770 oscillations of a Cesium-133 atom.
Dimensional and Unit Analysis
Dimensional analysis to determine if an equation is dimensionally correct. When you are presented with an equation, dimensional analysis is performed by stripping the numerical components and leaving only the unit types (such as Length, Mass, or Time). It may also be used to determine the type of unit used for an unknown variable. For example, the force of gravity may appear as the following:
It gets converted to the following:
and as such, the unit of force involves multiplying length and mass, and dividing by the square of the time.
Unit analysis is similar to dimensional analysis, except that it uses units instead of the basic dimensions. The same principle applies; the numbers are removed, and the units are verified to be equal on both sides of the equation.
Density
Density is the amount of mass per volume.Conversion of Units
How many kilometers are in 20 miles? To find out, you will have to convert the miles into kilometers.A conversion factor is a ratio between two compatible units.
You may also see conversion factors between weight (e.g. pounds) and mass (e.g. kilograms). These factors rely on equivalence (e.g. 1 kilogram is "close enough" to 2.2 pounds) based on external factors. While that cannot apply in all situations, these factors may be used in some limited scopes.
Estimates and Order-of-Magnitude calculation
The order of magnitude gives the approximate idea of the powers of 10 .Any number in the form a*10b [ here a multiplied by 10.. And 10raised to the power b]if a >or = 5 the a become 1 and b is not changed but when a>5 then a is taken as 10 so power of b increeses by 1.Significant Figures
A significant figure is a digit within a number that is expected to be accurate. In contrast, a doubtful figure is a digit that might not be correct. Significant figures are relevant in measured numbers, general estimates or rounded numbers.As a general rule, any non-zero digit shown is a significant figure. Zeros that appear after the decimal point and are at the end of the number are also significant. Zeros at the end of the number but before the decimal point are not included as significant figures (although exceptions may occur.)
In general, an operation performed on two numbers will result in a new number. This new number should have the same number of significant digits as the least accurate number. If an exact number is used, it should have the same number of digits as the estimated number. If both numbers are exact, the new number should be calculated fully (within reason).
When doing calculations, you should only keep at most 1 doubtful digit; while it is acceptable to keep them when using a handheld calculator or computer, the final answer should be adjusted to reflect the correct number of significant digits.
Other units
The current metric system also includes the following units:- An ampere (A) measures electric current.
- A kelvin (K) measures temperature.
- A mole (mol) is the amount of substance (based on number of atoms rather than mass.)
- A candela (cd) measures luminous intensity.
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