Physics

• What is physics anyway?

• Physics is a basic science.

• It is about the nature of basic things such as motion, forces, energy, matter, heat, sound and light.

• Whereas chemistry is the study of how matter is put together and how it combines to form compounds, physics is an even more basic science because physics helps us understand the forces that hold an atom together.

• Learning physics will help you to understand the physical world around you.

• Measurements are an important component of any branch of science.

• Mankind has always tried to learn more about the world in which he lives.

• From the earliest scientists in 3rd and 4th century Greece to the Chinese inventing gunpowder, making measurements has been vital to understanding the world around us.

• The size of the Earth was first measured by the Egyptian geographer/mathematician Eratosthenes in 235 BC.

• The size of the sun was first measured by Aristarchus at about 240 BC.

• Both of these calculations involved measurements and subsequent mathematic calculations.

• In fact, mathematics is an important part of the physics toolbox.

• In the movie “Contact”, Dr. Araway opines that the alien signal received was in the form of pulses of prime numbers because “mathematics is the universal language.”

• In fact, scientists the world over use a system of measurement called the System International (SI), which is also called the metric system

• The metric system is a series seven base units.

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• To convert between SI units, multiply or divide by the appropriate power of 10.

• Prefixes are used to change SI units by powers of 10, as shown in the table below.

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