A Mathematical Toolkit

1.1 Mathematics and Physics

•What is physics?•The study of the physical world

•How energy and matter are related

Does it Make Sense?

•Excellent way to check to see if your answer is in a suitable range

Base Units•The foundations of the SI

system•All other units are derived

from these seven units•Meter, kilogram, second,

kelvin, mole, ampere, and candela

Meter, m•1st defined at 1/10,000,000 the distance from north pole to equator pass through Lyons, France

•1983 light traveling in a vacuum for 1/299,792,458 s

Second, s•First defined as 1/86,400 of a

solar day•Earth is slowing down so time

was not constant•1960’s atomic clocks developed•Now frequency of Cs-133 atom

Kilogram, kg•Mass of small platinum-iridium metal cylinder

•Not reproducible with natural occurrence

Derived units•All the other units are combinations of the base units.

•Newton, N is a kg.m/s2

•SI Prefixes•Dimensional Analysis•Significant Digits •Scientific Notation•Accuracy•Precision

1.3 Graphing Data•Linear Relationships•Nonlinear Relationships•Directly proportional•Indirectly proportional

•Independent variable is the variable the experimenter changes, x- axis

•Dependent variable changes as a result of the independent variable, y axis