First Year Science Measurement

3 Measurement

In this section you will answer:

Why we need to have a standard.

Some history of standards, and famous errors.
The modern SI that we now use in science.

3.1 Why do we need to measure things?

Let’s imagine that we have to take a desk out of the classroom. Will it fit through the door?
But what if I need to ask someone who is on another floor and cannot see my hands, how
can I do that? I could go down the stairs and back up
again, or I could ask them to use their hands, but their
hands are probably different to mine.

To solve this problem we need a standard unit of measure,

something that we all know and agree on, then it is easy for
us to tell someone else how wide our desk is.

(Class exercise in measuring the desk)

Make sure you understand this vocabulary from the

measuring exercise:

measure (verb, noun)

graph (verb, noun)
histogram (noun)
to plot
variation (noun)

We need standards not just for length, but also for other things, like mass and time. In short,
we need a system of standards.

3.2 A brief History of measurement

There are many systems of measurement, some still in use and some historical. In the Old
Testament in the Bible, Leviticus wrote about a commandment to use “fair measures” for
quantities. He also mentions two standards of volume, the ephah and the hin, so there must
have been an official, standard system of measurement more than 3000 years ago.

Many traditional measures of length were based on parts of the body. Obviously this will vary
from person to person. Units of length in England were based on the body were the Inch
(part of the thumb, the hand (four inches or 10.16 cm) and the foot .

If you are buying a length of cloth would it have been better to be tall or short? And if you
were selling it? (Tall buying and short selling).

12
First Year Science Measurement

The Magna Carta (1215) had a clause declaring that there should be one set of measures in
the whole country. Some of the units mentioned are still used today in the UK. Even in
Europe we measure computer screens in inches and boats are measured in feet (plural of
foot).
Why a metric system is easier!
Most traditional
1 statute mile = 0.8688 nautical miles = 1,760 yards = 320 systems were not
rods = 8 furlongs =5280 feet = 63360 inches = 880 fathoms = decimal or metric
15840 hands systems, that means a
system with multiples
of ten. For instance there are 12 inches to a foot, and 3 feet to a yard. Why do you think they
did this? (To make calculations in your head easier)

Many people in the 17 and 18th century in Europe had suggested using a metric system. The
first real metric system came after the French Revolution of 1799, when the metre and the
kilogram replaced the hundreds of different systems in the country.

The problem was that there were many systems, there were even competing metric systems
(one using KILOGRAMS-METRES –SECONDS and another using GRAMS-
CENTIMETRES-SECONDS.
Story of the Mars Climate Orbiter
Slowly many countries agreed to make a
standard system, starting with the use of a
standard metre, which was defined by a
French organisation. Britain kept its Imperial
System until 1965 when it started to change,
but it has not yet finished (and will not for a
long time)! Like Britain, America and many
other countries have a mixture of units.

After the second world war work began on

making a single practical system of
measurement that ended up (resulted) as the
system we use in science today, the Système
International d'Unités or SI. It is a system that
evolves, as new discoveries are made and as
technology improves the system changes.
On September 23rd 1999, a NASA space probe
called the Mars Climate Orbiter, crashed into the
atmosphere of the plant and broke apart. It was
supposed to have send data on the climate of the
planet Mars. The reason it crashed was that two
computers talked to each other, but one used the
Imperial units and the other SI units, and neither
computer converted them!

13
First Year Science Measurement

3.3 The SI system of measurement

There are 7 basic SI units, these are the building blocks for all the other units of measure.
There are many other units, called the derived units,
but they can all be broken down into the basic 7 units.

The basic units are carefully defined so that starting

from nothing we can make an exact measurement, we
don’t need an example of the unit but can make an
example by careful observation. The only unit where
we cannot do this is the kilogram. There is a
calibrated example of the kilogram in Paris, France
which is kept under three glass bells in a vacuum so
that it does not react with the air or get deposits on it
that could change its weight.

This is a problem that will be talked about in a

conference planned in 2014 that may decide to could
make a change to the definition of the unit.

As scientists we should always use SI units, BUT sometimes we use other units because
they are more convenient or for cultural purposes. For instance we still use hours (3.6x103s)
and days (8.64x104s) and nautical miles at sea (1852m) and temperature in °C.

The Structure of the SI Units

Table 1 Base quantities and base units used in the SI

Base quantity Symbol Base unit Symbol

Length l, h, r, x metre m

Mass m kilogram kg

Time, duration t second s

Electric current I, i ampere A

Temperature T kelvin K

Amount of substance n mole mol

Luminous intensity Iv candela cd

3.4 Length
A distance between two points. It is also used in time, but we always say time – “length of
time”.

 Original (1793): 1/10000000 of the meridian through Paris between the North Pole and the
Equator.FG

14
First Year Science Measurement

 Current (1983): The distance travelled by light in vacuum in 1/299792458 second.

3.5 Mass and Weight

At the end of the 18th century, a kilogram was the mass of a cubic decimeter of water. In
1889, the 1st CGPM sanctioned the international prototype of the kilogram, made of
platinum-iridium, and declared: This prototype shall henceforth be considered to be the unit
of mass. The picture at the right shows the platinum-iridium international prototype, as kept
at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures under conditions specified by the 1st
CGPM in 1889.

The kilogram is the unit of mass; it is equal to the mass of the international prototype of the
kilogram.

In common usage (when we talk normally and not in the science class) we use the word
weight to mean mass. We ask someone “how heavy are you?” and we expect them to give
an answer in kilograms.

In the science class we use kilograms to measure MASS. Let’s do a thought experiment. If I
take a “weight”, a piece of iron, that has 1Kg on it and put in on the kitchen scales I will see
that it reads 1kg. You say that this is not surprising, and you would be right. Now let’s
imagine we are on the ISS (International Space Station) orbiting around the earth. We know
that there it is “weightless”, so let’s put our 1kg “weight” on the scales. Now we see that the
scales read “0 kg”. But how can this be? The piece of metal has not changed.

Well with the kitchen scales on earth we did not measure its mass directly. We measured the
force that the mass produced in the earth’s gravity. If there is no gravity, there is no force –
but the mass is still the same.

In reality weight is a force and should be measured in Newtons. So if your science teacher
asks “how heavy are you” tell them “(your mass in kilograms times ten) Newtons”!

3.6 Time
The unit of time, the second, was defined originally as the fraction 1/86 400 of the mean solar
day. (86 400 = 24hours x 60 minutes x 60 seconds). But experiments showed that the length
of the day was not regular, so another definition was needed. The second is the duration of 9
192 631 770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two
hyperfine levels of the ground state of the cesium 133 atom. (don’t worry, you don’t need to
remember this!!)

In all the other units we use multiples of ten, so we have kilometres, kilograms but in time we
don’t use kiloseconds.

15
First Year Science Measurement

3.7 Temperature
In common usage we use degree centigrade (a summer’s day is thirty degrees centigrade –
30°C) The SI units are called Kelvin, and are the same size as a degree centigrade, but they
start in a different place. In fact zero Kelvin (we don’t use the word degree) is called absolute
zero, it is impossible to be any colder as something at 0K has absolutely no energy. In reality
we find it impossible to get to absolute zero, even if we can get very very close.

On this scale water freezes at 273.15K and boils at 373.15K (notice there is exactly 100K
between the two, just like centigrade). The SI says that the water triple point is water at
exactly 273.16 K.

3.8 Derived Units

Then there are the derived units. These are combinations of the basic units that make up a
new unit that is easier and more convenient to use. Here are some of them:

Derived Quantity SI Units

Name Symbol Definition Name Symbol Definition
Volume V Space occupied by cubic metre
m3
a body V=l3
Density d Relation between kilograms
mass and volume per cubic Kg/m3
d=m/V metre
Speed, v Distance moved in metres per
m/s (ms-1)
velocity a unit of time v=s/t second
Acceleration a Change of speed metres per
with time second per
Acceleration g Acceleration second m/s2 (ms-2)
due to produced by the
gravity force of gravity
Force F Factor that causes newton N 1N=1kg ms-2
a change in motion
of an object
F=ma
Energy E Capacity of a joule J 1J=1Nm
physical system to
perform work
Pressure P Force acting on a pascal Pa 1 Pa = 1 Nm-
2
surface of unit area
P=F/A
Weight w Force with which a newton N 1N = 1 kg
body is attracted to ms-2
a celestial body
W=mg
Frequency γ (nu) Number of cycles in hertz Hz 1 Hz = 1 s-1
a unit of time

16