What is Physics?

Physics is• A branch of science that involves

the study of the physical world: energy,

matter, and how they are related.

SI Base Units

Base Quantity Base Unit Symbol

Length Meter m

Mass Kilogram kg

Time Second s

Temperature Kelvin K

Amount of a substance Mole mol

Electric current Ampere A

Luminous intensity Candela cd

KNOW THESE!!!

Prefixes used with SI UnitsKnow Nano to Kilo

Prefix Symbol Multiplier Scientific Notation Example

Femto f .000000000000001 10-15 femtosecond (fs)

Pico p .000000000001 10-12 picometer (pm)Nano N .000000001 10-9 nanometer (nm)

Micro m .000001 10-6 Microgram (mg)

Milli m .001 10-3 Milliamps (mA)

Centi c .01 10-2 Centimeter (cm)

Deci d .1 10-1 Deciliter (dL)

Kilo k 1000 103 Kilometer (km)

Mega M 1000000 106 Megagram (Mg)

Giga G 1000000000 109 Gigameter (Gm)

Tera T 1000000000000 1012 Terahertz (THz)

Let’s Practice

METRIC CONVERSIONS

How many megahertz is 750 kilohertz?

• 0.75 MHz

Convert 5021 centimeters to kilometers.

• 5.021x10-2 km

How many seconds are in a leap year?

• 31,622,400 s

Convert the speed 5.30 m/s to km/h.

• 19.08 km/h

Your Turn To Investigate• Observations:

• Circle the Quantifiable Observations • Given the instruments we have, what can we

measure? __________________________________________________________________________

Precision vs Accuracy

• What will we measure? How precise can we be? Why?

• Hypothesis:

Design Your Own Experiment

• Purpose:________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• Procedure:

• Data: (table and graph form)

• What is the independent variable? _________• What is the dependent variable? _________

• Conclusion: _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Describing Motion

• Motion Diagrams--- a series of images showing the positions of a moving object at equal time intervals

• Particle Motion--- a simplified version of a motion diagram in which the object is replaced by a series of single points

-size of the object must be much less than the distance it moves

Try: Motion Diagrams• Draw a motion diagram a tennis ball dropped at three

different heights (use same time scale for each, relative estimation) and position the diagrams side by side one another for easy comparison.

• What reminds constant? __________________________