Tutorial 1 - Measurement and Units

  1. In your own words what is physics?
  1. What do we mean by the scientific method?

Try to draw a concept map that might describe the scientific method using the following words:

experiment, law, model, observation, theory

  1. Physics is a language in its own right. In what ways is physics similar/different to other languages (for example German, Chinese, American)?

What role does mathematics and the use of equations play in this language?

What other things make up this language?

  1. What do we need to do before we can take a measurement of something? Consider the differences and similarities between the temperature scales : Celsius, Fahrenheit and Kelvin.
  1. Define the following terms:

a) unit

b) standard

c) base quantity

d) derived quantity

  1. Express each of the following in both scientific notationand using prefixes:

a) 2 300 m

b) 54 000 g

c) 0.00014 s

d) 3 520 000 J

e) 4 700 V

f) 0.000045 A

g) 0.025 m

h) 0.000000067 s

i) 0.0082 V

k) 3 100 000 000 

  1. Calculate each of the following quantities to the correct amount of significant figures. Also describe these quantities in terms of their correct SI units (you may need to convert quantities in some cases).

a) The speed of a train if it travels 1000m in 44.1s.

b) The total distance traveled by a train if it travels 60.137km and then another 4.21km.

c) The average speed of a car when it travels 56km in 48min.

d) The time it takes a starters gun to be heard if it is fired 1km from the listener.

(NB speed of sound is 343ms-1 at 20oC).

e) The average mass of an egg if a carton of 12 eggs weighs 0.75kg.

The following three questions are a little more difficult.

Do not be surprised if you cannot do them all.

  1. On the sheet of graph paper below draw the following functions.

a) y = 3

b) x = 2

c) y = -5

d) y = 3x - 4

e) y = 5 - 2x

f) y = x2

g) y = 3x2

h) y = 1 -x2

  1. A bowling ball rolls along the isle. A table of distance traveled versus time taken is given in the table below.

time (s) / 0 / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5
distance (m) / 0 / 3 / 5.5 / 8.7 / 12.4 / 15.1

a)On the graph paper below plot the points from this data.

b) Draw a line of best fit for this data. This is the line that best passes through all of the points.

c)The speed is given by the distance traveled divided by the time taken. Calculate the speed of this ball using the line of best fit.

  1. In the tutorial room you should find an experiment with a meter ruler, a stopwatch and a ball. In this experiment you are asked to do the following.

a)Roll the ball along the table or floor and measure the time it takes to roll equally spaced distances. For example every 20cm or 50cm. Record the data in a table similar to the table in Q8.

distance (m)
time (s)

b)Plot a graph of distance versus time for this data.

c)Try to predict an equation to describe the variation of distance with time.

Student Learning

What is the most important thing you believe you learnt in this topic?

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