Physics Terms Unit 1 Measurements

What is physics?

the study of the fundamental laws of nature that can be expressed in terms of mathematical equations.

What is science?

an organized way of thinking about nature and understanding how it works.

Scientific method

the systemic approach that scientists use to learn about nature.

Obeservation/Infer

describes events in a logical orderly way, logically interpret your obeservations.

Plan

after you obeserve, you come up with a list as an action plan.

Hypothesis

detailed scientific explanation for an observation that can be tested and either verified or rejected.

Experiment

to test your hypothesis

Analyze

examine what happened during the experiment

Conclusion

results of the experiment, either verify or reject the hypothesis

The validity of a hypothesis is based solely on its ability to:

account for known obervations and to correctly predict new observations.

Theory

A detailed explanation of some aspect of nature that accounts for a set of well tested hypotheses. (Why it happened)

Law

Well-supported descriptions of nature. They don't provide explanations, but instead describe the relationship. (What happened under specific conditions)

Bias

preference for a particular view or person, not logical reasoning

Peer Review

a report is scrutinized by experts in the field.

What is the relationship of science and technology?

In order for new techonological advancements, there must be scientific advancements.

Investment in __ is an investment in _.

basic science, future technologies

Metric System

Scientists use this when collecting data and performing experiments.

British System of Measurement

Foot(Length), Slug(Mass), Second(Time), Pound(Weight)

American System of Measurement

Meters(Length), Kilogram(Mass), Second(Time), Newtons(Weight)

Base Units

The standard "measuring stick" for a physical quantity

Length- meter(m):

defined as the distance traveled by light in 1/299,792,458 of a second.

Mass - kilogram(kg):

defined as the mass of a platinum-iridium cylinder at the International Burreau of Weights and Standards.

Mass is

amount of matter in an object

Inertia

The resistance of an object to move. An indirect measurement of mass.

Time - seconds(s):

defined as the time it takes for radiation from cesium-133 atom to oscillate 9,192,631,770 times.

SI System:

also known as the MKS system of measurements for meter, kilogram, second

Tera

10^12

Giga

10^9

Mega

10^6

Kilo

10^3

Hecto

10^2

Deca

10^1

Deci

10^-1

Centi

10^-2

Milli

10^-3

Micro

10^-6

Nano

10^-9

Pico

10^-12

Derived units

unit of measurement used to describe 2 or 3 dimensional objects and space.

Weight

measure of gravitation pull. W(newton)= m(kg) x g(acceleration of gravity)(9.8m/s^2)

Volume

a measure of how much space something occupies

Density

measure of the mass per volume. identifying property of a substance

Any valid equation must be

dimensionally consistent, which means that it needs to be dealing with the same dimensions throughout.

Accuracy

how close your measurement is to the accepted value

Your precision

how close your measurement are to one another(not necessarily close to the accepted value).

Your instrument's precision:

the ability of an instrument to consistently produce measurements close to the same value.