LECTURE-1

UNITS AND DIMENSION ::

Why do we need units ?

We need units because we want to measure the Amount or quantity of some things. To make this measurement globally acceptable we need to put some Unique measurement value. This value is called a UNIT

What are dimensions ?

Dimensions are physical quantities like length, mass, time which Uniquely characterises an object. If say you want to measure the distance then its dimension is the Length. For matter its mass and for clock its the time Units are used to measure this physical quantities. Meter for example is the metric unit for length

Units are of two types---1. Metric system (European and other countries) 2. Foot-Poundal system (USA)

Units can be small and big

If you are measuring a very big quantity then you represent your Measure with a bigger unit. For example take length of a stick and the distance between OK city and Stillwater. The first one you can measure with a unit as Small as meter, What about the second one ? If we want to measure the distance in meters(m) or foot(ft) it is fine but it Is going to be a very big number. Rather it will be easy to represent the distance in tems of a bigger Unit called KILOMETER(Km) or in MILES (miles)

How big or small can a Unit be ??

A unit can be as big as 26,000 Light years, where 1 Lightyear = Distance travelled by Light in 1 year = 3x108 x60x60x24x365 m = 3.942x1014 m Its a large distance !!!! 26,000 Light year is the distance between Sun and the center of our Galaxy the MILKY WAY. So we see that Light year is a very big unit as compared to meter though they both represent length

Let us now see how small a unit can be, If we ask the question as to what is the radius of an Atom, the smallest unit of matter ? The answer is a few angstrom ~ 10-8 m Or that is ~ 0.00000001 m Hence we see that the span of measurable quantity having same dimension for example length can be very Wide. So we require convenient units while measuring big or small quantities

1 Km = 1000 m 1m = 100 cm (centimeter) 1mile = 5280 ft 1ft = 12 inch 1inch =2.54 cm The relation between the unit of length in metric System.And the foot-poundal system is :: 1 ft = (122.54)/100.0 = 0.30 m 1 m =100.0/(2.5412.0)= 3.28 ft

List of some Units and their conversion from metric to foot-poundal systems
USA units Inch Foot Yard Metric Units 2.54 cm 30.48 cm 0.91 m Metric Units Cm m m USA units 0.39 feet 3.28 feet 1.09 yards

Miles

1.61 km

km

0.62 miles

For Mass
USA units Ounce Pound UK ton Metric Units 28.35 grams Metric Units Grams USA units 0.035 ounce 2.21 pounds 0.98 UK tons

0.45 kilograms Kilograms 1.02 metric tons Metric tons(1000)

US ton

0.91 metric tons

Metric tons(1000)

1.10 US tons

Prefix for Units

Prefix micro milli centi deci deca hecto kilo mega Symbols m c d da h k M Inwords A millionth A thousandth A hundredth A tenth ten A hundred A thousand A milliom Shift points 6 to right 3 to right 2 to right 1 to right 1 to left 2 to left 3 to left 6 to left

Some Units in Mechanics

Some Units in Electricity and Magnetism

Some Abbrevetions

s = second cm = centimeter m = meter ft = foot g = gram kg = kilogram

N = newton lb = pound J = joule Hz = hertz mi = mile

V = volt = ohm W = watt A = Ampere C = coulomb

Some Exercises:

What is 1 inch in terms of a Km ? 1 liter is equal to how many meters ? 1 mile is how many meters ? What is a light year in terms of meters ? 1 kilogram is equal to how many ounces ? What is a milli second ? 1 pound is equal to how many grams ? How many seconds have you lived till today on earth ?