Natural philosophy can be defined as to find ways to organize the disorder prevailing in the

observed facts about the natural phenomena and material things in an orderly manner.

In the beginning of 19th century, due to huge increase in the volume of scientific knowledge, the
study of nature was classified into two branches;

1. Biological Sciences deal with the living thing

2. Physical Sciences deal with non living things (Physics, Chemistry, astronomy, geology etc.)
Physics is an important and basic part of Physical Sciences and is an experimental science.

1. What is Physics
Three main frontiers of fundamental science are;

i. The world of extremely large the universe itself

ii. The world of extremely small particles such as electrons, protons, neutrons etc.
iii. The world of complex matter (world of middle sized things )

“Physics deals with the study of matter and energy and the relationship between them”

The study involves investigating;

i. The laws of motion,

ii. The structure of space and time,
iii. The nature and type of forces that hold different materials together,
iv. The interaction between different particles,
v. Interaction of electromagnetic radiation with matter.

Nuclear physics deals with atomic nuclei.

Particle physics is concerned with the ultimate particles of which the matter is composed.

Relativistic mechanics deals with velocities approaching that of light.

Solid state Physics is concerned with the structure and properties of solids.

Physics is most fundamental of all Sciences and provides other branches of science basic
principles and fundamental laws. This overlapping gave birth to new branches such as physical
chemistry physics astrophysics else's etc

Physics also plays an important role in the development of Technology and Engineering,
Information media, Fast means of communication, Information technology all works on the basic
ideas of Physics.

“Computer chips are made from wafers of the metalloids silicon is semiconductor”
2. Physical quantities

The laws of Physics are expressed in terms of physical quantities therefore these quantities are
required to be measured accurately.

2.1. International System of units

In 1960 an International committee agreed on a set of definitions and standards to describe the
physical quantities. This system is called system international (SI).

There are three kinds of units in system International

a) Base units
b) Supplementary units and
c) Derived units

a. Base units

These are basic units are not derived from other units. In terms of these units other units can be
derived. There are seven basic units for various physical quantities.

Base Units
Physical Quantity SI Unit Symbol
Length meter m
Mass kilogram kg
Time second s
Electric current ampere A
Thermodynamic temperature kelvin K
Amount of substance mole mol
Luminous intensity candela cd

The measurement of a base quantity involves two steps;

i. Choice of a standard and

ii. Establishment of a procedure for comparing with the standard

An ideal standard has two principal characteristics;

 i. Accessible
ii. Invariable

Standard definitions of the base units

Metre

The unit of length is named as metre. Before 1960 it was defined as the distance between two
lines marked on the bar of an alloy of Platinum 90% iridium 10% kept under controlled
conditions at the International Bureau of weights and measures in France.

In 1960 it was redefined as length equal to wavelength in vacuum of the orange red radiation
emitted by Krypton 86-atom.

In 1983 metre was redefined to be the distance travel by light in vacuum during the time of one
by 1/299,792,458 seconds (speed of light in vacuum).

Kilogram

It is defined as the mass of a platinum and Iridium alloy cylinder 3.9 cm in diameter and 3.9 cm
in height kept under controlled conditions at the International Bureau of weights and measures in
France. This standard was established in 1901.

Second

The unit of time is termed as second.  It is defined as 1/86400 part of an average day of the year
1900 A.D. In 1967 second was redefined as one second equal to the duration in which the
outermost electron of the cesium-133 atom makes 9,192,631,770 vibrations.

 Kelvin 

Temperature is a thermodynamic quantity. The unit of Temperature is Kelvin it is the fraction

1/273.16 of the thermodynamic temperature of the triple point of water. 

Triple point of a substance means the temperature at which solid, liquid and vapour phases are in
equilibrium. (1967)

Ampere

The unit of electric current is ampere. it is that constant current which if maintained in two
straight parallel conductors of infinite length, of negligible circular cross section and placed a
metre apart in vacuum would produce between these conductors a force equal to 22×10-7 newton
per metre of length. this established in 1971.
Candela

Unit of luminous intensity it is defined as the luminous intensity in the perpendicular direction of
a surface of 1/600000 square metre of a black body radiator at the solidification temperature of
Platinum under standard atmospheric pressure. 1967

Mole

The mole is the amount of substance of a system which contains as many elementary entities as
there are atoms in 0.012 kg of carbon-12 the elementary entities maybe atoms, molecules,,
electrons, ions. One mole of any substance contains 6.0225×1023.

b. Supplementary units

These are SI units that have not been yet classified as base or derived units by the general
conference on weights and measures. These are two units for plane angle and solid angle. 

Supplementary Units
Physical Quantity SI Unit Symbol
Plane angle radian rad
Solid angle steradian sr

Radian

It is the plane angle between two radii of a circle which cut off on the circumference,  an arc
equal in length to the radius.

Steradian
 Steradian is the solid angle ( three dimensional angle) subtended at the centre of a sphere buy an
area of its surface equal to the square of radius of the sphere.

c. Derived Units

SI units for measuring all the physical quantities other than base quantities and supplementary
quantities are derived from the base and supplementary units.

Base Units

Physical Quantity SI Unit Symbol In terms of base units

Force Newton N kg m s-2
Work Joule J N m= kg m2 s-2
Power Watt W J s-1 = kg m2 s-3
Pressure Pascal Pa N m2= kg m-1 s-2
Electric charge coulomb C As

2.2. Scientific notation

Number expressed in standard form employing powers of ten, called scientific notation.  There
should be only one non-zero digit left of decimal. 
 The number 134.7 should be written as 1.347×102 and 0.0023 as 2.3×10-3.

2.3. Conventions for indicating units

i. Full name of the unit does not begin with a capital letter even if named after a scientist  
e.g. newton.
ii. The symbol of unit named after scientist has initial capital letter such as N for newton.
iii. The prefix should be written before the unit without any space such as 1 mm.
iv. A combination of base units is written each with one space apart such as N m.
v. Compound prefixes are not allowed.
vi.  A number such as 5.0×104 cm may be written as 5.0×102 m
vii. When a multiple of a base unit is raised to a power, the power applies to the whole
multiple and not the base unit alone.

2.4. Errors and uncertainties

All physical measurements are uncertain or imprecise to some extent. It is very difficult
to eliminate all possible errors or uncertainties in measurement.
Sources of errors

The error may occur due to;

i. Negligence or inexperience of a person 
ii. The faulty apparatus 
iii. In appropriate method or technique

Sources of Uncertainties

The uncertainty may occur due to

i. Inadequacy or limitation of an instrument
ii. Natural variations of object being measures
iii. Any unnatural imperfections of a person’s senses

The uncertainty is also usually described as an error in measurement.

There are two major types of errors, random error and systematic error.

Random error

Such error occurs when repeated measurements of the quantity gives different values under the
same conditions. It is due to some unknown causes.

How to Reduce Random error

Repeating the measurement several times and taking an average can reduce the effect of random
errors.

Systematic error

It is due to an effect that influences all measurements of a particular quantity equally. It produces
a consistent difference in readings. It occurs due to some definite rule.
Sources of Systematic Error
It may occur due to
i. Zero error of instruments
ii. Poor calibration of instruments
iii. Incorrect marking
How to reduce systematic error
It can be reduced by comparing the instruments with another which is known to be more
accurate. Thus for systematic error correction factor can be applied.

2.5. Significant figures

Every measuring instrument is calibrated to a certain smallest division and this fact put limit to
the degree of accuracy which may be achieved while measuring with it. The uncertainty in the
value of measured quantity can be indicated conveniently by using significant figures. The
recorded value of the length of the straight line 12.7 cm contains 3 digits 1, 2, 7, out of which
two digits 1 and 2 are accurately known while the third digit is it doubtful one.

In any measurement the accurately known digits and the first doubtful digit are called
significant figures

A significant figure is the one which is known to be reasonably reliable. As we improve the
quality of our   measuring instrument and techniques, we extend the measured result to more
and more significant figures and improve the experimental accuracy of the result.

2.5.1. Rules for significant figures

a) All digits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 are significant.  
b) Zeros may or may not be significant.
c) In scientific notation or standard form the figures other than the power of 10 are
significant figures. For example 8.70 × 104 has three significant figures.
d) When multiplying and dividing numbers, the significant figures in the product or quotient
are not more than that contained in the least accurate factor that is factor containing the
least number of significant figures.
e) In adding and subtracting numbers, the number of decimal places retained in the answer
should equal the smallest number of decimal places in any of the quantities being added
or subtracted. In this case number of significant figures is not important it is the position
of decimal that matters.

Rules for zeros as significant

In case of zeros to be significant following rules may be adopted;

i. Zero between two significant figures is itself significant. There are 4 significant figures in
10.02.
ii. Zeros to the left of significant figures are not significant for example none of the zeros in
0.00467 or 02.59 is significant.
iii. In decimal fraction zeros to the right of a significant figure are significant. For example
all the zeros in 3.570 or 7.4000 are significant.
iv. In integers such as 8000 kilogram, the number of significant zeros is determined by the
accuracy of the measuring instrument. If the least count of scale is 1 kg, there are 4
significant figures and if least count is 10 kg, there will be three significant figures.
Rules for rounding off

a) If the first digit dropped is less than 5, the last digit written should remain unchanged.

b) If the first digit dropped is more than 5, the digit to be retained is increased by 1.

c) If the digit to be dropped is 5, the previous digit which is to be retained is increased by 1

if it is odd and retained as such if it is even.

d) The digits are deleted one by one.