Units of Measurement and Sig Figs

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Flashcards for reviewing units of measurement and significant figures.

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18 Terms

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Units of Measurement

Standard quantities used to express the magnitude of physical quantities (e.g., mm, m, ft).

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Importance of Units

Units help understand physical meaning, calculate quantities, and identify errors in calculations.

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Specific Heat

The amount of heat required to raise the temperature of a substance (e.g., Aluminum) by a certain amount, measured in J/g°C.

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SI Base Units

The fundamental units in the International System of Units, including moles (amount), meters (distance), seconds (time), kilograms (mass), candela (luminosity), Kelvin (temperature), and Ampere (electric current).

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Precision

The degree to which repeated measurements show the same result.

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Accuracy

The degree of closeness of measurements to the actual or accepted value.

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Uncertainty in Measurement

The range of possible values within which the true value of a measurement lies, including certain and uncertain digits.

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Random Errors

Errors in measurement that cause values to be either larger or smaller; unavoidable but can be minimized.

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Systematic Errors

Errors in measurement that consistently make values either larger or smaller; harder to recognize but can be minimized by calibration.

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Significant Figures

The digits in a number that are known with certainty plus one final digit that is uncertain.

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Exact Numbers

Values that have no uncertainty, such as defined values and quantities (e.g., 12 in = 1 foot, number of trials).

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Rules for Significant Figures

Rules to determine which digits in a number are significant (e.g., non-zero digits are significant, zeros between non-zero numbers are significant).

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Pacific-Atlantic Method

A method to determine significant figures based on the presence or absence of a decimal point.

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Rounding Rules

Rules for rounding numbers based on the digit to be removed (e.g., round up if the digit is > 5, round down if < 5, round to the nearest even number if = 5).

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Operations with Sig Figs: Addition and Subtraction

The answer will have the same number of decimal places as the number with the fewest decimal places.

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Operations with Sig Figs: Multiplication and Division

The answer will have the same number of significant figures as the number with the fewest significant figures.

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Combining Operations with Sig Figs

Don’t round in the intermediate steps; consider the number of sig figs at each step and only round the final answer.

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Steps for Dimensional Analysis

Convert using equivalence statements, derive unit factors, and multiply to obtain the desired units.