Measurements

Science and engineering is based on measurements and comparisons. Units are used in
measurements. Units are unique names assigned to physical quantities which are either basic or
derived quantities.

Basic physical quantities use international system of units to define the physical dimension of
physical quantities for dimensional analysis. They include

Basic quantity Symbol SI unit

Length l metre (m)
Mass m kilogram (kg)
Time t second (s)
Electric current I Ampere (A)
Temperature T Kelvin (K)
Amount of substance n mole
Luminous intensity lv Candela (cd)

Derived physical quantities – they are multiples of basic physical quantities and include

Derived quantity Symbol SI unit

Acceleration ⃗ m/s2
Area A m2
Area density ρA Kg.m-2
Capacitance C Farad (F= C/V)
Coldness β 1/kB.T
Current density ⃗ A
Electric charge Q Coulomb
Electric charge density ρQ C/m3
Electric field strength ⃗⃗ V/m
Electric conductivity G Siemens (S=Ω-1)
Electric potential ϕ Volt (V= J/C)
Electrical resistance R Ohm (Ω = V/A)
Electrical resistivity Ohm-metre (Ω.m)
Energy density ρE J.m-3
Entropy S J/K
Force F Newton (N=kg.m.s-2)
Frequency f Hertz (Hz =s-1)
Half life t1/2 S
Heat Q joule (J)
Heat capacity cP JK-1
Heat flux density ΦQ Wm-2
Impulse J Newton-second (N.s= kg.m.s-1
Mass fraction х kg/kg
(mass) Density (or Ρ kg/m-3
 volume density)
Mean lifetime T s
Momentum ⃗ Kg.m.s-1
Plane angle Θ Radian (rad)
Power P Watt (W)
Pressure P Pascal (Pa =N/m-2)
(Radioactive) activity A Becquerel (Bq =Hz)
Solid angle Ω Steradian (sr)
Specific heat capacity C J.kg-1
Specific volume V m3.kg-1
(inverse of density)
Velocity ⃗ m.s-1
Volume V m3
Volumetric flow rate Q M3.s-1
Wavelength Λ m
wavenumber K m-1
Weight W Newton (N)
Work W Joule (J)

Scientific notation is used to represent very large or very small quantities. It uses the power of 10.
Example

3 500 000 000 m =3.56 x109 m

0.000 000 0345 s = 3.45 x 10-8 s

Alternatively, prefixes representing specific powers of 10 of the basic unit. The prefixes are used as
a multiplication factor.

Prefixes for SI units

Factor Prefix Symbol Factor Prefix Symbol

1024 yotta- Y 10-1 deci d
1021 zetta- Z 10-2 cent c
1018 exa- E 10-3 milli- m
1015 peta P 10-6 micro-
1012 tera T 10-9 nano n
109 giga G 10-12 pico p
106 mega M 10-15 femto f
103 kilo K 10-21 atto a
102 hecta H 10-18 zepto z
101 deka Da 10-24 yocto y

Examples
Some ranges of measurements

Measurement Time interval in seconds

Lifetime of a proton (predicted) 3 x1040
Time between human heartbeats 8 x 10-1
Lifetime of unstable particle 1 x 10-24
The Planck time 1 x 10-43

Measurement Length in Metres

Radius of earth 6 x106
Length of a typical virus 1 x 10-8
Radius of a hydrogen atom 5 x 10-11
Radius of a proton 5 x 10--15

Measurement Mass in kilograms

Earth 3 x1053
Sun 2 x 1030
Speck of dust 7 x 10-10
Uranium atom 4 x 10-25
Proton 2 x 10-27
Electron 9 x 10-31

Atomic nature of matter

An atom has a central nucleus composed of protons and neutrons surrounded by electrons.

An element is some material that consists of atoms, all of which contain the same number of
protons.

Atom with 1 proton make up an element called hydrogen, Helium is made up of 2 protons,

A periodic table of element is an organization of known elements into groupings having similar
physical and chemical properties.

Two atoms with the same number of protons but different number of neutrons are said to be
isotopes of the same element e.g. 12C and 13C
Different isotopes behave almost identically as far as chemical reactions are concerned, since
chemical reactions involve atomic electrons only and not the atomic nuclear. The isotopes behave
differently in a nuclear reaction.
The number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an atom of an element are related to the
atomic mass of the element, which is defined as the mass of a single atom of the element
measured in atomic mass unit (u), where

Example
The mass of proton
The mass of neutron
Mass of an electron

1. Calculate the mass in kg of a naturally occurring carbon-12 i.e. 12C atom

Solution
12
C has an atomic mass of 12 u per atom
⁄ ⁄ ⁄

2. Calculate the number of atoms in 1 kg of gold

Solution
The atomic mass unit of gold is 197 u
Mass of 1 atom of gold in kg will be
⁄ ⁄ ⁄
and 1 kg of gold will have

Density and atomic mass

Density, ρ (Rho) is defined as mass per unit volume

(1)

For example, the density of aluminum is 2.7 g/cm3, and lead has a density of 11.3 g/cm3.
Therefore, a piece of aluminum of volume 10.0 cm3 has a mass of 37.0 g, whereas an equivalent
volume of lead has a mass of 113 g.
A list of densities for various substances are given in the table below

Substance Mass density, ρ

(kg/m3)
Elemental solids
Platinum 21,450
Gold 19,300
Uranium 18,700
Lead 11,300
Copper 8,960
Iron 7,880
Aluminum 2,700
Magnesium 1,750
Alloys, molecular and composite solids
Brass 8,400 -8,700
Steel 7,800 -7,900
Ice (at 0oC) 917
Glass 2,400 -2,800
Bone 1,900
Liquids
Water (at 4oC) 1000
Mercury (at 00C) 13,600
Gases
Air 1.29
Carbon dioxide 1.98
Helium 0.18
Hydrogen 0.09
Nitrogen 1.25
Oxygen 1.43

Note
The atomic mass of lead is 207 u and that of aluminum is 27.0 u. However, the ratio of the
atomic mass , does not correspond to the ratio of their densities (11.3
g/cm3) / (2.70 g/cm3), due to the difference in atomic spacings and atomic arrangements in the
crystal structures of the two elements.

A macroscopic measurement of density of solids can be used to calculate the distance between
atoms in an element. How?

1. When the density (mass per unit volume) of the solid is divided by the mass per atom, we
get atoms per unit volume
2. The reciprocal of atoms per unit volume becomes volume per atom
3. If the atom is assumed to be a cuboid, then volume of a cuboid is L3
 4. Then the cube root of L3 gives the average distance L between adjacent atoms.

Example

Calculate the average distance between iron atoms given that the atomic mass of iron is 55.8 u
and its density is 7900 kg/m3

Solution

⁄ ⁄

In general the atomic spacing is approximately 10-10m = 0.1 nm = 1 angstrom (1Å)

The average distance between atoms in any elemental solid is approximately the same as that of
iron e.g. lithium = 0.20 nm, carbon (graphite) = 0.21 nm, aluminum = 0.26 nm, copper = 0.23
nm, gold = 0.26 nm, and uranium = 0.28 nm. Thus, atomic spacings in elemental solids are
approximately the same, despite the variation in atomic masses of a factor of over 200.

Exercise

1. Evaluate the atomic spacing of

a. Mercury
 b. Water (has 2 hydrogen atoms and 1 oxygen atom)
c. Nitrogen gas
d. Oxygen gas

and compare the atomic spacing of the gases to that of solids and liquids

2. Iron has a density of 7.87 g/cm3, and the mass of an iron atom is 9.27 x10-26 kg. If the
atoms are spherical and tightly packed., calculate the volume of an iron atom

Characteristics of measurement
a) Accuracy
This reflects how close a measurement is to the known or expected value. More often it is
expressed as relative accuracy which is given as

Where is expected value while is the measured value. However, the percent accuracy, is
given as

( )

b) Precision
This is a measure of consistency or repeatability of measurement. Precision is expressed as
̅
̅
Where is the value of the nth measurement and ̅ is the average of a set of n measurements
c) Uncertainty
This is the quantitative measure of how much the measured value deviates from the expected
value. It is described in terms of errors

Types of errors
a) Gross errors
These errors are due to the fault of the person using the instruments. They include incorrect use
of instrument and incorrect recording of experimental data
 b) Systematic errors
They are divided into
i) Instrumental errors
These errors are caused by
 Inherent shortcomings in the instrument during construction, calibration or operation
of mechanical structure in the instrument
 Misuse of instruments such as failure to adjust zero of the instrument
 Loading effect of instruments
These errors can be corrected by
 Properly and carefully planning the procedures of measurements
 Correcting errors if detected e.g. the zero errors
 Carefully re-calibrating the instrument
ii) Observational errors
These errors mainly are due to parallax. Therefore the eye should be directly in line with the
measurement
iii) Environmental errors
This are due to external conditions to the measuring tool such as changes in pressure,
humidity, dust, vibration, or external magnetic and electrostatics fields
iv) Mathematical errors
This includes simplifying the formula or prematurely rounding of the measured values in a
formula

c) Random errors
These errors are due to statistical fluctuation in measured data due to precision limitation of
the measuring device. Variation in measured value under the same conditions including use
of the measuring device is observed.
Random errors can either be expressed as absolute error or relative (percent) error
i) Absolute error, e
It is defined as the difference between the expected value and the measured value and is
given as

Where is the expected value and is the measured value

 ii)

iii) Relative/percent error

This is given as

Example
1. The expected value of the voltage across a resistor is 50 V, however, measurements yields 49
V. Calculate
a) The absolute error
b) The relative error
c) The relative accuracy
d) The percent of accuracy

Solution
 ( )

( )

2. The following set of ten measurements was recorded in a laboratory. Calculate the precision
of the fourth measurement
Measurement No. Measurement value, Xn, in
volts
1 98
2 102
3 101
4 97
5 109
6 98
7 106
8 109
9 99
10 100
Solution
̅
̅
Mean, ̅

Therefore,