1.1 - Physical Quantities & Measurement

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts from the lecture notes on Physical Quantities & Measurement Techniques, focusing on IGCSE Physics content related to measurement, scalars, vectors, and vector calculations.

Rulers

Instruments used to measure small distances, typically to the nearest millimeter.

Tape Measure

Used to measure lengths often tens of centimeters.

Trundle Wheel

Used to measure larger distances, often tens of meters.

Measuring Cylinder

Used to measure the volume of liquids and can also be used to determine the volume of irregular shapes.

Human Reaction Time

The typical amount of time it takes for a person to react to a stimulus.

Multiple readings

Taking multiple of these can reduce the impact of measurement errors.

Fiducial Marker

A visual reference point, like a line or dot, used to improve measurement accuracy, especially in oscillations.

Scalar Quantities

Quantities that have only magnitude.

Scalars

Examples include mass, energy, and volume.

Vector Quantities

Quantities that have both magnitude and direction.

Vectors

Examples include weight, acceleration, and momentum.

Distance

A measure of how far an object has traveled, regardless of direction; a scalar quantity.

Displacement

A measure of how far it is between two points in space, including the direction; a vector quantity.

Speed

A measure of the distance traveled by an object per unit time, regardless of direction; a scalar quantity.

Velocity

A measure of the displacement of an object per unit time, including the direction; a vector quantity.

Magnitude of a Vector

The length of the arrow in a vector diagram represents this.

Combine vectors

Vector diagrams can be used to do this to vectors.

Resultant Vector

The combined effect of two or more vectors.

'soh-cah-toa'

Trigonometric functions like sine, cosine, and tangent.