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Lecture 1 Introduction, Measurement, Estimating

Scientific Notation
Example
874 = 8.74 10
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128 42 = 1.2842 10

0.01284 = 1.284 10
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Rule: Only one digit before the decimal point. All the rest is after the decimal point.
Rules for the power of 10:
1. Numbers bigger than 1
Count how many digits you want to place behind the decimal point
2. Numbers smaller than 1
Count how many positions you have to move to reach the first non-zero number
Significant Digits
Example
3.74 3 significant digits 10
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1. Write the number in scientific notation
2. How many digits after the decimal point + one before the decimal point
Measurement and Uncertainty
Precision: How precise is our measuring device. Do we measure down to meters, or cm,
or mm ? The smaller the units the more precise. The precision determines with how
many significant digits we write our measurements.
Example: A ruler stick with smallest division mm
Our measurements must be in the form: x.xxx m m, 23.4 cm, 3.4 cm, or 4 mm. (1.284
WRONG: 4.0 mm, 3.40 mm. We don't have precision to measure tenths of mm!)
Accuracy: How close is our measurement to the "correct" answer? Usually we don't
know what is the correct answer, but we can determine an interval within which the
"correct" answer must lie. The smaller this interval, the better accuracy.
Note: We can have very high precision and yet have a very inaccurate measurement.
Example: Your clock is very precise, but you forgot to adjust it for the summer saving
time.
Uncertainty (error): The uncertainty of a measurement is directly related to the
precision of the instrument used in the measurement.
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Example: Absolute and fractional uncertainty
You measure your height to be 1.85 0.01 m. What is the absolute uncertainty of the
measurement. What is the fractional uncertainty (percent error) of the measurement.
Solution:
a/-. n:ccvtai:tn = 0.01 m
1vactio:a| n:ccvtai:tn = 100 = 0.
0.01
1.8
m
m
% %
Note: There is no point giving the uncertainty with more than one significant digit.
It is not a measurement, but rather and indicator of a measurement. Keeping more
significant digits does not make your measurement more precise!
Example: What is the percent uncertainty in the measurement
8.76 0.2m
0.2
8.76
100 = 6.6 % %
Example: Add the following numbers. Give the final answer with the appropriate number
of significant digits.
Add s s s 0.2 10 8.8 10 0.008 10
8 4 6
0.2 10 88 10 8 10 = 100 10 = 1.00 10
8 8 8 8
s
Note:
1. indicates what the precision of the instrument is. The absolute uncertainty
2. The fractional uncertainty indicates how "good" the measurement is.
Example: You measure the length of a swimming pool to be 5.14 m. What is the 10
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uncertainty of the measurement. Is your measurement good?
Absolute uncertainty: When the measurement is given in the scientific notation, the last
significant digit is an indication of what the precision of the instrument was. The last digit
in the above number is 4 cm, which means that your measuring instrument did not have
mm marks. Any length from 3.5 cm to 4.4 cm will be reported as 4 cm, and therefore, the
absolute uncertainty is cm m 0. = 10
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Is it a good measurement: The fractional uncertainty will give us an idea of how good
the measurement is:
10
8
m
5.1410
1
m
= 0.1 % this is usually a good measurement in our lab.
Units
SI Systme International (aka MKS)
CGS cm-gram-second
Imperial System ft, pound, second (aka British)
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SI SI CGS CGS British British
Quantity Unit Abbr. Unit Abbr. Unit Abbr.
Length meter m centimeter cm foot ft
Mass kilogram kg gram g pound lb
Time second s second s second s
Temperature kelvin K kelvin Fahrenheit F
Amount of Substance mole mol
Electric Current ampere A
Luminous Intensity candela cd
SI prefixes
Prefix Abrev. Value Prefix Abrev. Value
deka da deci d 10
hecto h 10
10
1 1
2
centi c
kilo K milli m
mega M micro
giga G

nano n
tera T 10 pico p
12 12
10
Conversion
1 = 2.4 = in cm 1 cm ?
1 in cm cm in cm 0.394 in = 1 = 1 = = 1 = 2.4

1 1
2.4 2.4
1 m 100 cm 1 cm ? = =
1 m cm cm m = 1 = 1 = 0.01 100

1
100
Example:
Mount Everest (called Chomolungma in Tibetan meaning "Goddess Mother of the
world") is 8850 m tall. How much in feet?
1 ft in in cm cm = 12 = 12 1 = 12 2.4 = 12 2.4 1
m m = 12 2.4 0.01 = 0.8048
1 ft m m ft ft = 1 = 1 = = 8.2808 0.8048

1 1
0.8048 0.8048
880 = 880 1 = 880 = 2008 = 2.008 10 m m ft ft

1
0.8048
4 ft
Exercise:
1. K-2, the second highest peak is 8611 m. How much in feet? 28250 ft
2. McKinley is 20 320 ft. How much in m? m 6. 104
1 kg ~ 2.2 |/
Note: More Unit conversions can be found in the front page of the book!
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Converting nonlinear units
Example: How many cm are there in 1 m ?
2 2
1 m m m cm cm cm
2 2 2 4 2
= 1 1 = 10 10 = 10
Converting compound units
Example: Determine the conversion factor between km/h and mi/h
1 km mi = 0.6214
km km mi
h h h
= = = 0.6214
1 0.6214
1 1
mi/h
mi 1 mi
h 1 h 1 h
km
= = = = 1.61

1
0.6214 1
0.6214
km/h km/h
Order of Magnitude, Rapid Estimating
Round off all significant figures to only one and keep track the powers of 10 only.
Example: Make a rough estimate of the volume of your body (in cm
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)
Solution 1:
180 |/ ~ 60 kg
90% of human body is water density g/cm = ~ 1 = 1000 /o:
8 8
dc:-itn = = o|n:c ~ ~ = 6 10
:a--
o|n:c 1
6010
4 8
8
8
g
g/cm
cm
Solution 2:
Approximate the human body to a rectangular prism
height 1.8 m ~
width 0.5 m ~
depth cm ~ 10
o|n:c ~ 0.1 = 0. = 10 1.8 m 0.5 m m 09 m 9 cm
8 8 4
Questions: Which of the two answers is the correct one?
Since this is a rough estimate, only the power of 10 matters in the final answers. So both
answers agree to the order of magnitude.
Note: We can see that in the first solution, we underestimated the density of the human
body, so the volume is probably slightly overestimated. In the second solution, again,
we've overestimated the volume, since a person does not fit completely into a rectangular
prism with the chosen dimensions. So, both our answers are probably higher than the
actual result. Nevertheless, we should expect the actual volume to be on the order of
magnitude of 10 .
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