Engineering Physics X 1A Tutorials 1:

Physics and Measurement

Mr. M. J. Mvelase, Mr. A.P. Sefage and Mr. S. Simelane

2024

Work through these questions in preparation for your tutorial on Chapter 1: Physics and
Measurement. Some of the questions are taken from the main textbook, Physics for Scientists
and Engineers (9th Edition) with Modern Physics by Raymond A. Serway and John W. Jewett,
Jr.

Warm Up
1. One student uses a meterstick to measure the thickness of a textbook and obtains 4.3
cm ± 0.1 cm. Other students measure the thickness with Vernier callipers and obtain
four different measurements: (a) 4.32 cm ± 0.01 cm, (b) 4.31 cm ± 0.01 cm, (c) 4.24 cm
± 0.01 cm, and (d) 4.43 cm ± 0.01 cm. Which of these four measurements, if any, agree
with that obtained by the first student?
2. A house is advertised as having 1 420 square feet under its roof. What is its area in
square metres? (a) 4 660 m2 (b) 432 m2 (c) 158 m2 (d) 132 m2 (e) 40.2 m2
3. Rank the following five quantities in order from the largest to the smallest. If two of
the quantities are equal, give them equal rank in your list. (a) 0.032 kg (b) 15 g
(c) 2.7 × 105 mg (d) 4.1 × 10-8 Gg (e) 2.7 × 108 mg
4. What is the sum of the measured values 21.4 s + 15 s + 17.17 s + 4.00 3 s? (a) 57.573 s
(b) 57.57 s (c) 57.6 s (d) 58 s (e) 60 s
5. Newton’s second law of motion says that the mass of an object times its acceleration is
equal to the net force on the object. Which of the following gives the correct units for
force? (a) kg ∙ m/s2 (b) kg ∙ m2/s2 (c) kg/m ∙ s2 (d) kg ∙ m2/s (e) none of those answers
6. A calculator displays a result as 1.365 248 0 × 107 kg. The estimated uncertainty in
the result is ±2%. How many digits should be included as significant when the result
is written down? (a) zero (b) one (c) two (d) three (e) four

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Problems
1. The standard kilogram is a platinum–iridium cylinder 39.0 mm in height and 39.0 mm
in diameter. What is the density of the material?
2. An automobile company displays a die-cast model of its first car, made from 9.35 kg of
iron. To celebrate its hundredth year in business, a worker will recast the model in
solid gold from the original dies. What mass of gold is needed to make the new model?
3. A proton, which is the nucleus of a hydrogen atom, can be modeled as a sphere with a
diameter of 2.4 fm and a mass of 1.67 × 10-27 kg. (a) Determine the density of the
proton. (b) State how your answer to part (a) compares with the density of osmium
(𝜌 = 22.6 × 10 kg/m3).
4. Two spheres are cut from a certain uniform rock. One has radius 4.50 cm. The mass of
the other is five times greater. Find its radius.
5. What mass of a material with density r is required to make a hollow spherical shell
having inner radius 𝑟 and outer radius 𝑟 ?
6. The mass of a copper atom is 1.06 × 10-25 kg, and the density of copper is 8 920 kg/m3.
(a) Determine the number of atoms in 1 cm3 of copper. (b) Visualize the one cubic
centimeter as formed by stacking up identical cubes, with one copper atom at the
center of each. Determine the volume of each cube.
7. Kinetic energy 𝐾 (Chapter 7) has dimensions kg ∙ m2/s2. It can be written in terms of the
momentum 𝑝 and mass 𝑚 as
𝑝
𝐾=
𝑚
(a) Determine the proper units for momentum using dimensional analysis. (b) The unit of force
is the newton N, where 1 N = 1 kg ∙ m/s2. What are the units of momentum 𝑝 in terms of a
newton and another fundamental SI unit?

8. According to Sir Isaac Newton, the magnitude of the gravitational forces exerted by the Earth
on the Moon is given by
𝐺𝑀𝑚
𝐹=
𝑟
where 𝑀 is the mass of the Earth, 𝑚 is the mass of the Moon, and r is the distance between
them. Force has the SI units kg × m/s2. (a) What are the SI units of the proportionality
constant G?

9. The position of a particle moving under uniform acceleration is some function of time and
acceleration. Suppose we write this position as 𝑥 = 𝑘𝑎 𝑡 , where 𝑘 is a dimensionless
constant. Show by dimensional analysis that this expression is satisfied if 𝑚 = 1 and 𝑛 = 2.
Can this analysis give the value of 𝑘?

10. (a) Assume the equation 𝑥 = 𝐴𝑡 + 𝐵𝑡 describes the motion of a particular object, with 𝑥 having
the dimension of length and 𝑡 having the dimension of time. Determine the dimensions of the
constants 𝐴 and 𝐵. (b) Derive an expression for the speed of the object. Check your answer by
employing dimensional analysis.

11. A solid piece of lead has a mass of 23.94 g and a volume of 2.10 cm3. From these data,
calculate the density of lead in SI units (kilograms per cubic meter).

12. A pyramid has a height of 481 ft, and its base covers an area of 13.0 acres. The volume of a

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 pyramid is given by the expression 𝑉 = 𝐵ℎ, where 𝐵 is the area of the base and ℎ is the height.
Find the volume of this pyramid in cubic metres. (1 acre = 43 560 ft2)

13. One cubic metre (1.00 m3) of aluminum has a mass of 2.70 × 103 kg, and the same volume of
iron has a mass of 7.86 × 103 kg. Find the radius of a solid aluminum sphere that will balance
a solid iron sphere of radius 2.00 cm on an equal–arm balance.

14. Let 𝜌 represent the density of aluminum and 𝜌 that of iron. Find the radius of a solid
aluminum sphere that balances a solid iron sphere of radius 𝑟 on an equal–arm balance.

15. One gallon of paint (volume = 3.78 × 10–3 m3) covers an area of 25.0 m2. What is the thickness
of the fresh paint on the wall?

16. An auditorium measures 40.0 m 3 20.0 m 3 12.0 m. The density of air is 1.20 kg/m3. What are
(a) the volume of the room in cubic feet and (b) the weight of air in the room in pounds? (1ft =
30.48 cm and 1 lb = 0.45 kg)

17. A hydrogen atom has a diameter of 1.06 × 10-10 m. The nucleus of the hydrogen atom has a
diameter of approximately 2.40 × 10-15 m. (a) For a scale model, represent the diameter of the
hydrogen atom by the playing length of an American football field (100 yards 5 300 ft) and
determine the diameter of the nucleus in millimeters. (b) Find the ratio of the volume of the
hydrogen atom to the volume of its nucleus.

18. A rectangular plate has a length of (21.3 ± 0.2) cm and a width of (9.8 ± 0.1) cm. Calculate the
area of the plate, including its uncertainty.

19. How many significant figures are in the following numbers? (a) 78.9 ± 0.2 (b) 3.788 × 109 (c)
2.46 × 10-6 (d) 0.005 3

20. The tropical year, the time interval from one vernal equinox to the next vernal equinox, is the
basis for our calendar. It contains 365.242 199 days. Find the number of seconds in a tropical
year.

21. A woman stands at a horizontal distance 𝑥 from a mountain and measures the angle of
elevation of the mountaintop above the horizontal as 𝜃. After walking a distance 𝑑 closer to
the mountain on level ground, she finds the angle to be 𝜙. Find a general equation for the
height 𝑦 of the mountain in terms of 𝑑, 𝜙, and 𝜃, neglecting the height of her eyes above the
ground.