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I. Key Terms and Phrases physics the study of the fundamental laws of nature and many of their applications SI units the internationally adopted standard system of units (based on meters, kilograms, and seconds) for quantitatively measuring quantities dimension of a quantity the fundamental type of a quantity such as length, mass, or time dimensional analysis a type of calculation that checks the dimensional consistency of an equation significant figures the digits in the numerical value of a quantity that are known with certainty scientific notation a method of writing numbers that consists of a number of order unity times the appropriate power of 10 conversion factor a factor (equal to 1) that multiplies a quantity to convert its value to another unit order-of-magnitude the power of ten characterizing the size of a quantity
II. Tips Dimensional Analysis You should be aware that, typically, arguments of mathematical functions are dimensionless. Angles, for example, are dimensionless as can be seen by the equation for the length of a circular arc s = rθ, where θ is in radians; hence, angular measures like radians and degrees signify only how we choose to measure the angle. The trigonometric functions, therefore, such as sine, cosine, and tangent are applied to dimensionless quantities. Other examples of dimensionless functions are log(x), ln(x), and their inverse functions 10x and exp(x). III. Additional Tools
Recording Calculator
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