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1. INTRODUCTION

What

is

physics?
Phys
ics

is

branch of
science
that
studies matter and its motion as well as how it interacts with energy and
forces.
There are many branches of physics including electricity, astronomy, motion, waves,
sound, and light. Physics studies the smallest elementary particles and atoms as well as the
largest stars and the universe. Scientists who are experts in physics are called physicists.

Physicists use the scientific method to test hypotheses and

develop scientific laws. Some of the most famous scientists in history
are considered physicists such as Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein.

Physics is at it's core a science of measurement.

What is chemistry?
Chemistry is the branch of science that studies the composition,
structure, properties and reactions of matter. Chemistry is considered a
physical science and is closely related to physics. Scientists who specialize
in chemistry are called chesmists.

2. THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

The scientific method is a logical and rational order of steps by
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which scientists come to conclusions about the world around them.

It consists in the following steps

Scientists use the scientific method to search for cause and effect relationships in
nature. In other words, they design an experiment so that changes to one item cause
something else to vary in a predictable way.
Steps of the Scientific Method

Detailed Help for Each Step

Ask a Question: The scientific method starts when you ask a

question about something that you observe: How, What, When, Who,
Which, Why, or Where?
And, in order for the scientific method to answer the question it

Your Question

must be about something that you can measure, preferably with a

number.
Do Background Research: Rather than starting from scratch in

Background Research Plan

putting together a plan for answering your question, you want to be

Finding Information

a savvy scientist using library and Internet research to help you

Bibliography

find the best way to do things and insure that you don't repeat

Research Paper

mistakes from the past.

Construct a Hypothesis: A hypothesis is an educated guess
about

how

things

work:

"If _____[I do this] _____, then _____[this]_____ will

Variables
Variables for Beginners
Hypothesis

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happen."
You must state your hypothesis in a way that you can easily measure,
and of course, your hypothesis should be constructed in a way to
help you answer your original question.
Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment: Your experiment
tests whether your hypothesis is true or false.
It is important for your experiment to be a fair test. You conduct a
fair test by making sure that you change only one factor at a time
while keeping all other conditions the same.
You should also repeat your experiments several times to make sure
that the first results weren't just an accident.

Experimental Procedure
Materials List
Conducting an Experiment

Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion: Once your

experiment is complete, you collect your measurements and
analyze them to see if your hypothesis is true or false.
Scientists often find that their hypothesis was false, and in such
cases they will construct a new hypothesis starting the entire

Data Analysis & Graphs

Conclusions

process of the scientific method over again.

Even if they find that their hypothesis was true, they may want
to test it again in a new way.
Communicate Your Results: To complete your science fair
project you will communicate your results to others in a final
report and/or a display board. Professional scientists do almost
exactly the same thing by publishing their final report in a
scientific journal or by presenting their results on a poster at a
scientific meeting.

Final Report
Abstract
Display Board

3. MEASUREMENT

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What does it mean to measure something?: "Measurement is the assignment of a

numerical value to an attribute of an object, such as the length of a pencil.
Measuring is comparing an amount of a certain attribute of a body or
phenomenon with another amount of the same attribute that we take as a
reference, and we call it a unit. Not all attributes or properties can be measured. For
instance, beauty, harmony or happiness are impossible to measure. Those characteristics that
can be measured, like length, volume, density or temperature, are called quantities.

4. PHYSICAL QUANTITY
A physical quantity is anything that you can measure. For example, length,
temperature, distance and time are physical quantities. It consists of two parts: a number
and a unit. For example 100 meters = 100 m
There are two kind of physical quantities:
Base quantities
"Base quantities are those quantities which are distinct in nature and cannot be
expressed in the form of other quantities". They are measured

directly.

General derived quantities

Derived quantities are those whose definitions are based on other physical quantities
(base quantities). They are measured by mathematics formulae.

5. INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM OF UNITS (SI)

The metric measurement system was born after the French Revolution in 1789 and spread
rapidly over much of the world.
Science, being a truly international effort, adopted the metric system very early on. In
the mid-1960s, a more basic set of units the so called Systeme Internationale (SI) was
adopted and is now recognized all over the world as the standard for science and technology.
In the SI, all measuring units can be defined in terms of only seven units called base or
fundamental units. All the other units that can be expressed using these seven base units are

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known as derived units. The seven SI fundamental quantities and their respective units and
symbols are listed in the following table

To make working with units easier, some combinations of the base units are given
special names, but it is always correct to reduce everything to the base units. Table 2 lists
some examples of combinations of SI base units that are assigned special names.

5.1.THE SI DECIMAL PREFIXES

Due to the wide range of values that quantities can have, it has long been the practice to
employ prefixes such as milli and mega to indicate decimal fractions and multiples of metric
units. As part of the SI standard, this system has been extended and formalized. Table 3:

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5.2. CONVERSION OF UNITS

Very often it is necessary to convert one kind of unit into another. The most widely
used technique for performing such conversions is called factor-label method. It consists in
the sequential application of conversion factors, expressed as fractions and arranged so that
any dimensional unit appearing in both the numerator and denominator of any of the fractions
can be cancelled out, until only the desired set of dimensional units is obtained.
Examples:
a) 2 m --> cm

b) 1 year --> second

c) 72 km/h --> m/s

72

km 1000m 1h
m

20 20ms 1
h 1km 3600 s
s

The following conversion diagrams will help you change from one unit to another.

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Mass units

5.2.1. Conversion of temperature

Temperature is a degree of hotness or coldness that can be measured using a
thermometer. It's also a measure of how fast the atoms and molecules of a substance are
moving. Temperature is measured in degrees on the Fahrenheit, Celsius, and Kelvin scales.

The Kelvin Scale: The International System of Measurements (SI) uses the Kelvin
scale for measuring temperature. The Kelvin scale is based on the concept of absolute zero,
the theoretical temperature at which molecules would have zero kinetic energy. Absolute
zero, which is about -273.15 C, is set at zero on the Kelvin scale. This means that there is no
temperature lower than zero Kelvin, so there are no negative numbers on the Kelvin scale.

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6. SCIENTIFIC NOTATION
Scientific notation is a way of writing numbers that are too big or too small to be
conveniently written in decimal form. in the general form:

where a is a decimal number between 0 and 10 that is rounded off to a few decimal places.
b is known as the exponent and is an integer. If b > 0 (b is greater than 0) it represents how
many times the decimal place in a should be moved to the right. If b < 0 (b is less than 0),
then it represents how many times the decimal place in a should be moved to the left.
For example 3, 24 103 represents 3 240 (the decimal moved three places to the
right) and 3, 24 103 represents 0, 00324 (the decimal moved three places to the left).
If a number must be converted into scientific notation, we need to work out how many
times the number must be multiplied or divided by 10 to make it into a number between 1 and
10 (i.e. the value of b) and what this number between 1 and 10 is (the value of a).
We do this by counting the number of decimal places the decimal comma must move.

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Examples:

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871000 kg = 8,71105 kg
- 934,04 m = - 9,3404102 m
0,00529 s = 5,2910-3 s
2,28 A = 2,28 A

7. ROUNDING OFF
Certain numbers may take an infinite amount of paper and ink to write out. Not only is
that impossible, but writing numbers out to a high precision
(many decimal places) is very inconvenient and rarely gives
better answers. For this reason we often estimate the
number to a certain number of decimal places.
Rounding off a decimal number to a given number of decimal places is the quickest way
to approximate a number. For example,

8. SIGNIFICANT FIGURES
The sensitivity of a measuring instrument is the smallest amount of quantity it can
measure. The amounts of quantity that are smaller than the devices sensitivity cannot be
reliably resolved by it. In general, the sensitivity of a measuring apparatus is its smallest
scale division.
Any measurement can appear to be more precise than the limit imposed by the
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sensitivity of the measuring equipment. All digits in an experimental value have to be known
with some degree of confidence. The last digit must be the one with the biggest uncertainty.
We can achieve this by controlling the number of digits used to report the measurement.
The significant figures, or significant digits, of a number are those digits that carry
meaning, contributing to its precision. All figures in a number are significant except zeroes
located to the left of the first nonzero digit, because such zeroes merely indicate the
position of the decimal point. When a number ends in zeroes that are not to the right of a
decimal point, the zeroes are not necessarily significant. This ambiguity is avoided by the use
of scientific notation.
Examples: 3,067 s 4 significant figures
0,0410 m 3 significant figures
2100 kg 2, 3 or 4 significant figures => 2,10103 kg 3 significant figures

When measurements with different degrees of accuracy and precision have to be

combined in algebraic operations, the accuracy of the final answer can be no greater than the
least accurate measurement.
Examples: M = 34,2 g +0,427 g = 34,6 g
L = 2,716 m 2,5 m = 0,2 m

9. EXERCISES
A) Scientific notation
1. Carry out the following calculations:
a. 1, 63 105 + 4, 32 106 8, 53 105
b. 7, 43 103 6, 54 107 3, 33 105
c. 6, 21434534 105 3, 2555 103 + 6, 3 104
2. Write the following quantities in scientific notation:
a. 10130 Pa to 2 decimal places

b. 978,15 ms2 to one decimal place

c. 0,000001256 A to 3 decimal places

3. Write each of the following in scientific notation, correct to 2 decimal places:
a. 0,00000123 N

b. 417 000 000 kg

c. 246800 A

d. 0,00088 mm

4.- Rewrite this numbers using scientific notation: (leave two decimals behind the coma)
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a) 0,003

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b) 125,45

30000000 i) 8567985
m) 0,000024

PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY

c) 345720,56 d) 0,000023 e) 725654000f) 245 g)

j) 0,000006

n) 987654

k) 788566488,57

o) 4156,354

8540

h)

l) 2,000004

p) 0,025

5.- Rewrite these numbers into decimal notation:

a) 2 10-5 b) 5,35 10-6

c) 6,7 103

d) 4,56 109

e) 2,4 10-9

6.- Solve the next operations:

a) (103)5

b) (102)3

c) (102 105)3

e) 103 + 102

f) (105 + 106)/100

d) 103 10-3
g) (105 106)/100

B) Conversion of units
7. Write the following in scientific notation using Table 3 as a reference.
a. 0, 511 MV

b. 10 cm

c. 0, 5 m

d. 250 nm

e. 0, 00035 hg

8. Write the following using the prefixes in Table 3.

a. 1, 602 1019 C

b. 1, 992 106 J

c. 5, 98 104 N

d. 25 104 A

e. 0, 0075 106 m
9. For each of the following symbols, write out the unit in full and write what power of 10 it
represents:

a. g

b. mg

c. kg

d. Mg

10. For each of the following, write the measurement using the correct symbol for the prefix and
the base unit:
a. 1,01 microseconds

b. 1 000 milligrams

c. 7,2 megametres

d. 11 nanolitre

11. The Concorde is a type of aeroplane that flies very fast. The top speed of the Concorde is 844
kmhr1. Convert the Concordes top speed to ms1.
12. The boiling point of water is 100 t C. What is the boiling point of water in kelvin?
13.- Convert the following measurements to metres using conversion factors:
a) 100 mm

b) 23 cm

g) 3 Gm

h) 48 dam

c) 40 fm

d) 100 km

e) 12 pm

f) 45 m

14.- Convert the following measurements to square meters using conversion factors:
a) 40 cm2 b) 3500 mm2 c) 3 km2

d) 3500 nm2

15.- Convert the following measurements to cubic meters using conversion factors:
a) 45 dm3 b) 3500 hm3

c) 35 L d) 460 mL

e) 460 mm3

f) 45 L

16.- Make the following time conversions using conversion factors:

a) 4500 s to hours b) 5 h to min

c) 45 s to min d) 4500 ms to hours

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17.- Make the following mass conversions using conversion factors:

a) 4500 kg to g

b) 3700 mg to kg

e) 280 dg to mg

f) 50 g to kg

c) 600 Tg to Kg

d) 40 dag to Kg

18.- Make the following conversions using conversion factors:

a) 5 cm to inches b) 4 km to miles

c) 25 feet to meters d) 15 yards to km

e) 2 pints to litres f) 30 pounds to kg

1 inch = 0.0254 m.
1 foot = 0.3048 m.
1 yard = 0.9144 m.
1 mile = 1609.344 m.
1 quart = 1136.5225 mL.
1 gallon = 4546.09 mL.
1 pint = 568.2612 mL.
1 ounce = 28.349 g.
1 pound = 453.592 g.
19.- Make the following change of units:
a) 108 km/h to m/s

b) 400 mm to km

200 nm to m f) 200 m/s to km/h

h) 100 dm3 to dam3

c) 50 m2 to km2

d) 400 m3 to L

e)

g) 5,6 g/cm3 to kg/cm3

i) 30 L to cm3

j) 4 dm2 to mm2

20.- Express the next measurements in the International System of Units:

a) 200 km

b) 3000 L

c) 250 mm

d) 4 cm3

e) 200 g

f) 90 km/h

g) 20 g/L

h) 200 kg/L

i) 50 km

j) 300 mg

k) 60 hours

l) 5 km

m) 15000 ns

n) 1,5 years

o) 700 mg

p) 4 mm

q) 2 Mm

r) 25 pm

C) Conversion of temperature
21. Convert the following numbers from degrees Fahrenheit to degrees Celsius.
a. 0F ________C

b.

32F

(freezing

point)

________C
c. 70F (room temperature) ________C

d. 100 F __________ C

e. 98.6F (body temperature) ________C f. 212F (boiling point) ________C

22. Convert the following numbers from degrees Celsius to degrees Fahrenheit.
a. 0C (freezing point) ________F

b. 32C ________F

c. 70C ________F

d. 98.6C ________F

e. 100C (boiling point) ________F

f. 212C ________

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23. Complete the chart using the correct conversion formula.

a. 250 Kelvin to Celsius

b. 339 Kelvin to Celsius

c. 17 Celsius to Kelvin

d. 55 Celsius to Kelvin

e. 89.5 Fahrenheit to Celsius

d. 383 Kelvin to Fahrenheit

24. The weather forecaster predicts that todays high will be 70. Which temperature scale is
being used? What would be the corresponding temperature on the other two scales?
25. It was so cold yesterday that the temperature only reached 275. Which temperature scale
is being used? What would be the corresponding temperature on the other two scales?
26. Todays temperature of 42 in Chicago set a record high for the month of August. Which
temperature scale is being used? What would be the corresponding temperature on the other two
scales?
MORE UNIT CONVERSIONS
1 mile = 5280 feet

1 foot = 12 inches

1 yard = 3 feet

1 quart = 0,946 litres

1. Perform the following unit conversions:

a) 64000 nm mm

b) 52 km cm

c) 5,310-5 mm m

d) 0,63 kg g

e) 0,49 hours ms

f) 9,8105 minutes days

g) 1000 days weeks

h) 1106 s years

i) 80 hg dg

j) 565900 seconds days

k) 17 years minutes

l) 43 miles feet

m) 165 pounds kg

n) 100 yards metres

o) 22647 inches miles

p) 2678 cm feet

q) 150 km/h m/s

r) 25 m/s km/h

s) 98 C F

t) 230 F C

u) 30 C K

2. Convert the following to SI derived units:

a) 0,03 km/h

b) 5,6 g/cm3

c) 7800 cm3

d) 7800 km2

e) 3,25 kg/L

f) 0,3 Mm2

g) 2500 km3

h) 0,059 kg/cm3

i) 120 cm/min

3. a) An average person is 175 cm tall. How many people could you stack one on top of another to reach the
top of the CN tower, which is 553 m?
b) If 1 inch = 2,54 cm and 12 inches = 1 foot, how tall is the CN tower in feet?
4. a) The maximun speed reached by a standing skateboarder is about 14,7 m/s. Would the skateboarder
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get a ticket in a 30 km/h speed zone?

b) A snail crawls 100 times slower than a normal human walk (3 km/h). How many times slower than the
skateboarder is the snail?
5. 4. Sarah can run at a speed of 5 mph. How many miles can she cover in 5 minutes?
6. A bag of Skittles weighs 80 ounces. How heavy is the bag in pounds?
7. How long does a car travelling at 45 mph take to travel 80 miles, in hours?
8. A store sells coffee for $34 per bag. If a bag contains 6 lbs, find the cost of coffee per pound.
9. The area of a square box is 64 inches2. What is its length in cm?
10. A gardener buys 352 pounds of soil. 5 kg of soil fills one pot. How many pots can he fill with the soil?
11. A ball of string has a length of 60 m. How many 4-foot lengths of string can be cut from the ball?
12. A school canteen orders 50 litres of milk. How many half-pint glasses can be filled with this milk?
13. A car wheel has a diameter of 40 cm. How many times would the wheel go round if the car travels 1 km?
14. A box contains 20 jars of jam. The mass of each jar of jam is 800 grams. Find the mass of the contents of
the box in:
(a) kg,
(b) pounds

Basic equipment: https://youtu.be/_A3JxpMU63s

https://youtu.be/KLJEPcfgE5Q
https://youtu.be/DQPQ_q59xyw
si UNITS: https://youtu.be/f13T31Cxvso

https://youtu.be/WuaxXcgX6Rc

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