22 September, 2010

Fundamental quantities of science - SI units

Length - meter (m)
                We'll usually use 'x', 'y', or 'l' to represent distance or length

Mass - kilogram (kg)
                We'll usually use 'm' to represent mass

Time - second (s)
                We'll usually use 't' to represent time


The Building Blocks of Matter

Molecules à Atoms
Atoms à Particles (Protons, Neutrons, Electrons)
Particles à Quarks (up, down, strange, charm, bottom, top)
Quarks à Strings (?)


Dimensional Analysis
The process of using units (dimensions) to determine relationships between variables.  Dimensional analysis cannot determine if there is a "constant of proportionality". 

Significant Figures
Addition/Subtraction: The number of decimal places in the result should equal the smallest number of decimal places of any term in the sum/difference.

4.56 + 2.045 = 6.61 (6.605)

Multiplication/Division: The number of significant figures in the final result is the same as the number of significant figures in the least accurate of the values being combined, where least accurate means having the lowest number of significant figures.

3.1 x 6.51 x 0.773 = 15 (15.599913)

Conversions
Conversion factors are located in the front cover of your textbook.

Convert 1200m into ft…

1 m = 3.281 ft
1200 m = 1200 x 3.281 ft
1200 m = 3937 ft
Convert 12 cm2 into m2

100 cm = 1 m
1 cm = 1/100 m
12 cm2 = (1/100)2 m2
12 cm2 = 12 (1/100)2 m2
12 cm2 = 0.0012 m2

Convert 4.50 x 103 kg/m3 to g/cm3

Coordinate System

We use the Cartesian coordinate system a.k.a. the rectangular coordinate system.  Points are labeled (x,y).
Sometimes it is more useful to locate a point by its plane polar coordinates (r, θ).  We use trigonometry to convert from Cartesian (rectangular) to polar coordinates.

y = r sinθ
x = r cosθ

r2 = x2 + y2


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