PHYSICS PHYSICAL QUANTITIES AND MEASUREMENT

Physical Quantities and Measurement

Volume

 The space occupied by a body is called its volume or capacity.

 The SI unit of volume is cubic metre, that is, metre3 (m3).
 Smaller unit of volume is cubic centimetre (cm3).
1 m3  106 cm3
 The volume of the liquids is expressed in litre.
 The relation between litre and cm3 is 1 litre = 1000 cm3
Therefore, 1 cm3 = 10−3 litre = 1 milli litre (ml)

Vessels for Measuring the Volume of Liquids

 Liquids like water, milk, edible oil, etc. are measured by two kinds of vessels:
o Measuring cylinder, and
o Measuring beaker.

Measuring Cylinder
 It is a cylinder generally of area 10 cm2 made up of either glass or plastic.
 Its 10 cm in length with markings graduated in cm3 or ml.
 In order to measure the volume of a liquid, pour the liquid in an empty cylinder and read the level by
keeping the eye in line with the lower meniscus.

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Measuring Beaker
 A measuring beaker is used to measure a fixed volume of a liquid from a large volume.
 It is available in different quantities such as 50 ml, 100 ml, 200 ml, 500 ml and 1 l.

Measuring Volume of a Regular Shape

 Solids of regular shapes (without curves) are called regular solids.

Example:
o Volume of a cube = l3
o Volume of a cuboid = l × b × h
4
o Volume of a sphere = r 
3
o Volume of a cylinder = r 2h
1
o Volume of a cone = r h
3

Measuring Volume of an Irregular Shape

 The volume of the liquid displaced is equal to the volume of the submerged object i.e. the difference
between the original volume of the liquid and the final volume of the liquid is the volume of the
irregularly shaped solid.

o Volume of the water displaced = 70 ml – 50 ml = 20 ml

o Volume of the stone = 20 ml

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Area

 The space occupied by an object is called the area or the surface area.
 The area (A) of a regular plane surface such as square or rectangle can be calculated as
Area of a square = side x side
Area of rectangle = l x b
1
Area of triangle = b  h
2

Unit of Area
 The unit of area is square metre (m2).
 To measure a bigger area such as a piece of land or a building like a mall, bigger units or multiple
units of area are used called acre and hectare.
4046.85 m2 = 1 acre
2.471 acres = 1 hectare
1 hectare = 100 m x 100 m = 10,000 m2
 To measure the area of a much bigger size like the area of the country, continent or the earth, etc. a
bigger unit called square kilometre (km2) is used.
1 sq. km (km2 )  106 m2
 The area of smaller objects like a matchbox, book, pencil box etc. is measured by sub-multiple units
called square centimetre (cm2).
1 sq. cm (cm2 )  100 mm2 or 102 mm2

Measuring Area of a Regular Object

 Area of a square = l2
 Area of a rectangle = l x b
 Area of a circle = πr2
 Surface area of a cylinder = 2πrh
 Surface area of a sphere = 4πr2

Measuring Area of an Irregular Object

 To estimate the area of an irregular object (a lamina), a graph paper is to be used.

 A graph paper is a sheet of paper on which horizontal and vertical lines are ruled at a regular interval
of 1 mm.
 In order to measure the area of a lamina, place it on a graph paper and draw its boundary.
 Count the number of complete squares and the squares more than half within the boundary.
 Area of the lamina is the sum of areas of squares mentioned above.

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Density

 Density of an object is defined as the mass per unit volume of that object.
Mass M
Density  or d =
Volume V
 Its symbol is ρ (the Greek letter ‘rho’).
 An object which has greater mass is called a denser object, and an object which has less mass is
called a light object.

Units of Density
 The SI unit of density is kg/m3 (kg m−3).
 In the CGS system, the unit of density is g/cm3 (g cm−3).
 Relation between SI and CGS units
1 kg
1 kg / m3 
1 m3
1000 gm

1mx1mx1m
1000 gm

100 cm x 100 cm x 100 cm
1 gm
1 kg / m3 
1000 cm3
1000 kg / m3  1 gm / cm3

Determination of Density of a Solid Heavier than Water

 Take a measuring cylinder which is partially filled with water and a stone tied with a string.
 Measure the initial reading V1 of water in the measuring cylinder.
 Now immerse the stone into the cylinder which contains water and note the reading of the new water
level, i.e. V2.

M
 Density of stone 
V2 - V1
 Thus, by substituting the values of M, V2 and V1, we obtain the density of the stone.

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Speed

 The distance covered or travelled by a body in one second is called the speed of the body.
Distance travelled
Speed 
Time taken
d
v
t

Units of Speed
 The SI unit of speed is metre per second (m s−1)
 The other unit of speed is kilometre per hour (km h−1)
1 km 1000 m 5 m
1 km h1   
1h 3600 s 18 s
 3.6 km h1  1 m s1

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