Chapters 1 to 6

• The course content is outlined in the syllabus, contained in the latest Faculty of HEALTH SCIENCE prospectus. Please read it!
• Topics covered in the course

  • Motion along a straight line
  • Vectors
  • Force and Motion
  • Equilibrium and Elasticity
  • Fluids
  • Waves
  • Temperature, Heat and the 1st law of thermodynamics
  • Electric charge and Electric fields
  • Magnetism
  • Electromagnetism
  • Light (Wave-Particle Duality) and EM-waves
  • Photons-particle-like properties of Radiation (Quantum Theory)
  • Basic atomic molecular and solid state physics
• The recommended textbook is any other non-calculus based Physics textbook
• Physics


  The study of the laws of nature exhibited in matter and its motion in all 4 dimensions
• Measurements


  The most broadly, physics is the study of nature based on measurements and comparisons
• We need rules about how things are measured and compared, and we need experiments to establish the units for those measurements and comparisons
• Unit of measurement


  A standard of measurement that allows you to make sense of how large a physical quantity is
• Fundamental Quantities, Units and Symbols

  • Length
  • Mass
  • Time
  • Electric current
  • Thermodynamic temperature
  • Luminous Intensity
  • Amount of a substance
• SI units


  The Système International d'Unités adopted in 1960 to provide worldwide consistency
• SI units


  • metre (m)
  • kilogram (kg)
  • second (s)
  • ampere (A)
  • Kelvin (K)
  • candela (cd)
  • mole (mol)
• The Second is the time interval between the vibrations in the caesium atom (1 sec = time for 9 192 631 770 vibrations)
• The Meter is the distance travelled by a beam of light in a vacuum over a defined time interval (1/299 792 458 seconds) or (3.336 nanoseconds)
• The Kilogram is a particular platinum-iridium cylinder kept in Sevres, France
• The Kelvin [K] is 1/273.16 of the thermodynamic temperature of the triple point of water (0.010 °C)
• The Ampere [A] is the unit for electric current. One Ampere is that constant current which, if maintained in two straight parallel conductors of infinite length, of negligible circular cross-section, and placed 1 m apart in vacuum, would produced between these conductors a force equal to 2 x 10-7 newton per metre of length
• The Mole [mol] is the unit for quantity substance. One mole is that amount of substance of a system which contains as many elementary entities as there are in 0.012 kilogram of carbon 12
• The Candela [cd] is a unit for luminosity: One candela is the luminous intensity, in a given direction, of a source that emits monochromatic radiation of frequency 540 x 10^12 Hertz and that has a radiant intensity in that direction of 1/683 per steradian
• Rules for SI Units

  • Periods not used
  • Lower case unless derived from proper name
  • Leave a space between numerical value and symbol (except degrees, minutes, and seconds of angles and degrees Celsius)
  • Plurals of the unit name (not the symbol) are formed as necessary except for lux, Hertz, and Siemens
  • No hyphens or spaces between prefix and unit name
  • Omit final vowel in megohm, kilohm, and hectare
  • Use symbols with numerical values; use names with numerical value written in words
• Principle of homogeneity of dimensions

  The dimensional form of a physical law must be balanced, i.e. the dimensions at both side of the equation must be same
• Fundamental Dimensions and Units

  • Length: meter (m), foot (ft)
  • Mass: kilogram (kg), pound (lb)
  • Moles: gram-mole (g-mol), pound-mole (lb-mol)
  • Temperature: Kelvin (K), Rankine (°R)
  • Time: second (s), second (s)
• Dimensional Analysis


  The process of converting between different units of measurement
• Significant Digits


  The number of digits in a measurement that are known with certainty
• Rules for Significant Digits

  • All non-zero digits are significant
  • Zeros between significant digits are significant
  • Zeros to the right of the decimal point and to the right of a non-zero digit are significant
• Accuracy


  The measure of the nearness of a given value to the correct or true value
• Precision


  The repeatability of a measurement, i.e., how close successive measurements are to each other
• Precision is a desirable attribute of engineering work, but you don't always have time to be precise. Estimation is using your knowledge of something similar in size or amount to determine the size of the new object.
• Kinematics is the name for the mathematical description of motion
• Kinematics


  The branch of classical mechanics which describes the motion of objects without consideration of the masses of those objects nor the forces that may have caused the motion
• One-dimensional coordinate system


  • A point of reference known as the origin (or zero point)
  • A line that passes through the chosen origin called a coordinate axis
  • One direction along the coordinate axis, chosen as positive and the other direction as negative
  • The units we use to measure a quantity
• Scalar


  A quantity that can be described with a single number (including any units) giving its magnitude
• Vector


  A quantity that must be described with both magnitude and direction
• Displacement


  The change of an object's position that occurs during a period of time
• Displacement is a vector that points from an object's initial position to its final position and has a magnitude that equals the shortest distance between the two positions
• The SI unit of displacement is meter (m)
• Uniform motion


  When equal displacements occur during any successive equal-time intervals, and is always along a straight line
• Average velocity


  The slope of the position-versus-time graph
• Average speed


  Total distance travelled divided by total time taken
• Instantaneous velocity


  The object's velocity at a single instant of time
• Acceleration


  The rate of change of velocity, and measures how quickly or slowly an object's velocity changes
• The SI units of acceleration are m/s^2