1.

INTRODUCTION: PHYSICS AND MEASUREMENT

1.1. STANDARDS OF LENGTH, MASS, AND TIME

The laws of physics are expressed in terms of basic quantities that require a
clear definition. For, examples, such physical quantities as force, velocity, volume,
and acceleration can be desrcribed in term of more fundamental quantities which them
selves are defined in terms of measurements or comparison with established
standards. In mechanics, the three fundamental quantities are length (L), time (Time),
and mass (M). All other physical quantities are derived from these.
In 1960, an international committe established rules to decide on set of
standards for these fundamental quantities. The system that was established in an
adaptation of the metric system, and it is called the International System (SI) of units.
In this system, the units of mass, length and time are the kilogram, meters, and
second, respectively. Other standard SI units established by the committee are those
the temperature (the kelvin), electric current (the ampere), and luminous intensity (the
candela). These six fundamental units are the basic SI units. In the study of
mechanics, however, we will be concerned only with the units of mass, length, and
time.

(a) (b)
Figure 1.1 (a) The National Standard Kilogram No. 20, an accurate copy of the International
Standard Kilogram kept at Svres, France, is housed under a double bell jar in a vault at the
National Institute of Standards and Technology. (b) The nations primary time standard is a
cesium fountain atomic clock developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology
laboratories in Boulder, Colorado. The clock will neither gain nor lose a second in 20 million
years.
The SI units of mass, the kilogram, is defined as the mass of a specific
platinum-iridium alloy cylinder kept at the International Bureau of Weights and
Measures at Sevres, France. This mass standard was establised in 1901, and there has
been no change since that time because platinum-iridium is an unusually stable alloy.
The Sevres cylinder is 3.9 centimeters in diameter and 3.9 centimeters in height. A
duplicate is kept at the National Bureau of Standards in Gaithersburg, Md.
Before 1960, the standard for length, the meter, was defined as the distance
between two lines on a specific platinum-iridium bar stored under controlled
conditions. This standard was abandoned for several reasons, a principal one being
that the limited accuracy with which the separation between the lines on the bar can
be determined does not meet the present requirements of science and technology.
Because of the high precision and reproducibility available in optical interferometers,
the standard meter was redefined at the 1960 General Conference on Weights and
Measures as follows:
One meter a length to 1 650 763. 73 wavelengths in vacuum of the

10 s
radiation corresponding to the transition between the levels 2p and 5d of the
krypton-86 atom.
This spectral line occurs in the red region of the spectrum and represents a

standard that can be readily reproduced and measured to one part in 10 .

Before 1960, the standard of time was defined in terms of the mean solar day,
which is the length of a day measured throughout the year. Thus, the mean solar

1 1

60 60
second, representing the basic unit of time, was originally defined as

1

24
of a mean solar day. Time that is referenced to the rotation of the earth about its
axis is called universal time.
In 1967, the second was redefined to take advantage of the high precision that
could be obtained using a device known as an atomic clock. In this device, the
frequencies associated with certain atomic transitions (which are extremely stable and
sensitive to the clocks environment) can be measured to an accuracy of one part in 10
 12

. This is equivalent to an uncertainly of less than one second every 30 000 years.
Such frequencies are highly insensitive to changes in the clocks environment. Thus,
in 1967 the SI unit of time, the second, was redefined using the characteristic
frequency of a particular kind of cesium atom as the reference clock:
One second the duration of 9 192 631 770 cycles corresponding to the
transition between two particular hyperfine levels of the ground state of the
cesium 133 atom.
This new standard has the distinct advantage of being indestructible and widely
reproducible.

1.2. DENSITY AND ATOMIC MASS

Any piece matter tend to resist any change in its motion. This property of
matter is called inertia. The word mass is used to describe the amount of inertia
associated with a particular body.

A more fundamental property of any subtance is it density (Greek letter
rho), defined as mass per units volume:
m

V
........................... (1.1)
all ordinary matter consists of atoms, and each atom is made up of electrons
and a nucleus. Practically all of the mass of an atom is contained in the nucleus, which
consists of protons and neutrons. Thus we can understand why the atomic weights of
the various elements differerent. The mass of a nucleus is measured relative to the
mass of an atom of the carbon-12 isotope (carbon has six protons and six neutrons).
N
One mole of any element (or compound) consists of Avogadros number, ,
Of molecules of the substance. Avogadros number is defined so that one mole of

N
carbon-12 atoms has a mass of exactly 12 g. Its value has been found to be =

6.02 10 23
molecules/mole. For example, one mole of aluminum has of 27 g, and ane
mole of lead has a mass of 207 g. Although the have different masses, one mole
aluminum contains the same number of atoms as one mole of lead. Since there are

6.02 10 23
atoms in one mole of any element, the mass per atom is given by
 atomic _ weight
m
N

For example, the mass of an aluminum atom is

27 g / mole
m 4.5 10 23 g / atom
6.02 10 23 atoms / mole

N
Note that 1 amu is equal to 1/ g.

1.3. DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS

The word dimensional has a special meaning in physics. It denotes the
qualitative nature of a physical quantity. Whether the distance is measured in units of
feet or meters or furlongs, it is a distance. We say its dimensional is length.
The symbols that will be used to specify length, mass, and time are L, M, and
T, respectively. We will often use brackets [ ] to denote the dimensions of the physical

quantity. For example, in this notation the dimentions of velocity, , are written [ ] =

L2
L/T and the dimensions of area, A, are [A] = . The dimensions of area, volume,
velocity, and acceleration are listed in Table 1.1. along with their units in the three
common system. The dimensions of other quantities, such as force and energy, will be
described as they are introduced in the text.

Table 1.1 Dimentions of Area, Volume, Velocity, and Acceleration

No System L2 L3 Velocity Acceleratio

Area ( ) Volume ( )
. (L/T)
T2
n (L/ )
1 SI m 2
m 3
m/s s2
m/
2 Cgs cm 2 cm 3 cm/s s2
cm/
3 British engineering ft 2 ft 3 ft/s s2
Ft/

In many situations, you may be face with having to derive or check a specific
formula. Although, you may have forgotten the details of the derivations, there is a
useful and powerful procedure called dimensional analysis that can be used to assist
in the derivation or to check your final expression. This procedure should be used
whenever an aquations. Dimentional analysis makes use of the fact that dimentional
can be treated as algebraic quantities.
 To illustrate this procedure, suppose you wish to derive a formula for the
distance x traveled by a car in a time t if the car starts from rest and moves with
constant acceleration a. In chapter 3, we will find that the correct expression for this

1 2
x at .
2
special case is The procedure of dimensional analysis is to set up an
expression of the form
nt m
x
Where n and m are exponents that must be determined and the symbol
indicated a proportionality. This relationship is only correct if the
dimension of the left side is length, the dimension of the right side must also be
length. That is,
nt m
[ ]=L
L /T 2
Since the dimensions of acceleration are and the dimension of time is T,
( L /T 2 ) n T m L

Or
LnT m 2 n L
Since the exponents of L and T must be the same on both sides, we see that n = 1 and
m = 2. Therefore, we conclude that
t 2
x

1 2
x at .
2
this result is off by a factor of 2 the correct expression, which is

1.4. CONVERSION OF UNITS

Sometimes it is necessary to convert units from one system to another.
Conversion factors between the SI and English system for units of length are as
follows:

1 mile = 1609 m = 1.609 km 1 ft = 0.3048 m = 30.48 cm

1 m = 39.37 in. = 3.281 ft 1 in. = 0.0254 m = 2.540 cm
 A more complete list of conversion factors can be found in Appendix A. Units can be
treated as algebraic quantities that can cancel each other. For example, suppose we
wish to convert 15.0 in. To centimeters. Since 1 in. = 2.54 cm (exactly), we find that
cm
2.54 38.1
in.
15.0 in. = (15.0 in.) cm

1.5. MATHEMATICAL NOTATION

The symbol is used to denote a proportionality. For example, y

x means that y is proportional to the square x.

The symbols means less than, and means greater than. For example
, x > y means x is greater than y.
The symbols means much less than, and means much greater

than.

The symbol is used to indicate that two quantities are approximately equal
to each other.

The symbol means is defined as. This is stronger statement than a simple =.
It is convenient to use a sysmbol to indicate the change in a quantity. For

x
example, (read delta x) means the change in the quantity x.
We will often have occasion to sum several quantities. A useful abbreviation

for representing such a sum is the Greek letter (capital sigma).
x
Finally, the magnitude of quantity x, written , simply the absolute value of
that quantity. The magnitude of x is always positive, regardless of the sign of x.