Units and

Measurements
Engr. Nikko John Leo S. Lobos, ECE, ECT
 Two major system of units
• Metric System (SI units)
• The metric system is an internationally agreed decimal system of
measurement created in France in 1799 ( Système international).
• Internationally accepted system of units
• MKS (Meter, Kilogram, Second)
• CGS (Centimeter, Gram, Second)
 Two major system of units

• English System
• They were standardized somewhat by the British Weights and
Measures Act of 1824, which defined the Imperial Units to be
used throughout the British Empire
• Liberia, Myanmar, USA
• IPS (Inch, Pound, Second)
• FPS (Foot, Pound, Second)
• FPH (Foot, Pound, Hour)
Seven base SI Units
 Example of derive units
Quantity Unit Symbol
Volume cubic meter m3
Density kilograms per cubic meter kg/m3

Speed meter per second m/s

Newton kg m/ s2 N
Energy Joule (kg m2/s2) J
Pressure Pascal (kg/(ms2) Pa
Conversion of units
Conversion of units
Conversion of units
Example
• Convert the following:
• 25 m/s to kph to mph
• 60𝑚3 to L
• 32 ft / sec2 to m / sec2
• 30 cm to ft
• 27c𝑚3 to L
 Scientific Notation
• Scientific notation (also referred
to as scientific form, standard form
or standard index form) is a way of
expressing numbers that are too
big or too small to be conveniently
written in decimal form.
M x 10n

• 10 is the base
• n is the exponent or power of 10
Example:
• Brass solid measures 52.0 mm by 25.0 mm by 15.0 mm, what is the volume in cubic
millimeters?
Answer: 19,500𝑚𝑚3 (1.95𝑥104 𝑚𝑚3 )
• If a runner completes a 10K race in 32.50 minutes (min), what is the 10.0 km pace in
miles per hour (given that 1 mi = 1.61 km)?
Answer: 11.5 mi/h
• If a tennis ball has a diameter of 2.5 inches, what is the diameter in millimeters?
Answer: 64 mm
• Light travels through the universe at a velocity of 3.00 ×10^10cm/s. How many
gigameters does light travel in one second?
Answer: 0.300 Gm
• Given that an SUV has a 244 in.3engine, express the engine volume in liters.
Answer: 4.00 L
Example
• Given a 1975200000042 bytes of memory, find the following:
• Kilobytes
• Megabytes
• Gigabytes
• Terabytes
• Petabytes
Example
• Given a 0.00000000415542986 meter find:
• Milimeter
• Micrometer
• Nanometer
• Picometer
• Femtometer
 Significant Figures
• Each of the digits of a number that are used to express it to the
required degree of accuracy, starting from the first nonzero digit

• Express the precision of a measuring tool used to measure a value.

Rules of Significant Figures
• There are three rules on determining how many significant figures are
in a number:
• Non-zero digits are always significant.
• Any zeros between two significant digits are significant.
• A final zero or trailing zeros in the decimal portion ONLY are significant.
• Trailing zeros in a whole number are not significant unless specified by a
trailing decimal point or by scientific notation
Examples:
• Identify the number of significant figures:
1) 3.0800
2) 0.00418
3) 7.09 x 10¯5
4) 91,600
5) 0.003005
6) 780,000,000
Answers:
1) 3.0800 - five significant figures
2) 0.00418 - three significant figures
3) 7.09 x 10¯5 - three significant figures
4) 91,600 - three significant figure
5) 0.003005- four significant figures
6) 780,000,000 – two significant figures
Exercise
1. 5000 1. 1 sig
2. 30054 2. 5 sig
3. 0.0007642
3. 4 sig
4. 0.9006000
5. 109.900
4. 7 sig
6. 100001 5. 6 sig
6. 6 sig
 Significant Figures in a mathematical
Operation
• 12.00cm + 196.011cm
• 0.0025m – 0.000759m
• 2400L x 0.2567
• 91g / 0.21000
Exercises
• 2.5 cm + 0.50 cm + 0.055 cm
• 416 g - 210 g
• 0.020 cm x 50 cm x 11.1 cm
• 0.530 g / 0.1010 mL
 Definition
Accuracy
• Accuracy describes the nearness of a measurement to the
standard or true value, i.e., a highly accurate measuring device
will provide measurements very close to the standard, true or
known values.
• Precision is the degree to which several measurements provide
answers very close to each other. It is an indicator of the scatter
in the data. The lesser the scatter, higher the precision.
 Source and types of error
• The difference between the measured value and the actual
value
• Types of error
• Random error
• Systematic error
 Random Error and Systematic Error
• Random errors in experimental measurements are caused by
unknown and unpredictable changes in the experiment.
These changes may occur in the measuring instruments or in
the environmental conditions.
• Systematic errors in experimental observations usually come
from the measuring instruments
Percent Error and Percent Difference
• Percent Error:
|𝑥−𝑥𝑡 |
%𝐸 = × 100%
𝑥𝑡

• Percent Difference:
|𝑥−𝑥𝑡 |
%𝐸 = 𝑥+𝑥𝑡 × 100%
𝑥
Variance
• This measures the squared deviation of each number in the set from
the mean.
2 σ(𝑥−𝑥)ҧ 2
𝜎 = ,
𝑁
• Standard Deviation
• It is a measure of how disperse or spread out are a set of measurements from
their average.
𝑥 = 𝑥ҧ ± 𝜎
Absolute and Relative Uncertainty
• Uncertainty
• Indicates the range of values within which the measurement is
asserted to lie with some level of confidence.
• Absolute Uncertainty has the same unit as the quantity it self.
e.g. 25.00±0.5

• Relative Uncertainty is dimensionless and is obtained by dividing the

absolute uncertainty by the numerical or measured value.
0.05
e.g × 100 = 0.2%
25.00
Example
• You measure the length of an object five times. You perform these
measurements twice and obtain the two data sets below:

Test Data 1 Data 2

1 72 80
2 77 81
3 83 81
4 85 81
5 88 82
End of the Lecture

Thank you
Engr. Nikko John Leo S. Lobos, ECE ECT