Lesson 1 Base quantities and SI units

Leaning outcome:
Candidates should be able to
(a) list base quantities and their SI units: mass (kg), length (m), time (s), current (A), temperature (K) and
quantity of matter (mol)
(b) deduce units for derived quantities.
1. The international system of units is often abbreviated as SI (for Systme International).
2. Sometimes the units in this system are called metric units. The SI unit system is the standard used for
scientific work around the world. The base units for the SI system are given in Table 1.
Unit
Abbreviation
Base Unit for
meter
m
length
kilogram
kg
mass
second
s
time
kelvin
K
temperature
ampere
A
electric current
mole
mol
amount of a substance
Table 1 Units Names and Abbreviations for the Base Units of the SI System of Units
3. Units for all other physical quantities can be derived from the six base units of Table 1.
4. The unit for area, for example, is m 2. The units for volume and mass density are m 3 and kg m-3,
respectively. The units for velocity and acceleration are m s-1 and m s-2, respectively.
5. Some derived units were used so often that it became convenient to give them their own names and
symbols. Often the name is that of a famous physicist.
6. Table 2 lists the 15 derived SI units with special names. In the two rightmost columns of the table, the
named unit is listed in terms of other named units and then in terms of SI base units. Also included in
this table are the radian, the dimensionless units of angle.
Derived or Dimensionless Unit
Angle
Capacitance
Electric charge
Electric conductance
Electric potential
Electric resistance

Name
radian
farad
coulomb
siemens
volt
ohm

Energy
Force
Frequency
Inductance
Magnetic flux
Magnetic field
Power
Pressure
Temperature

joule
newton
Hz
henry
weber
tesla
watt
pascal
degree Celsius

Try it yourself:

Symbol
rad
F
C
S
V

J
N
H
Wb
T
W
Pa

C
Table 2 Common SI Derived units

Equivalent
C V-1
A V-1
W A-1
V A-1

Expressions
m2 kg1 s4 A2
sA
m2 kg1 s3 A2
m2 kg s3 A1
m2 kg s3 A2

Nm
-

m2 kg s2
m kg s2
s-1
m2 kg s2 A2
m2 kg s2 A1
kg s2 A1
m2 kg s3
m1 kg s2
K

Wb A-1
Vs
Wb m-2
J s-1
N m-2
-

1. The definitions of the following quantities are given. State their derived units
m mass of individual particle
mr 2
(a) Moment of inertia,
for all particles where
r distance of each particle from the turning axis
.
(b) specific heat capacity = quantity of heat supplied per unit mass per unit rise in temperature.
(c) Current density = current flow per unit cross-sectional area.

2. Derive the base units for the following quantities

(a) Force
(b) Work
(c) Power
(d) Pressure

and