International System of Units

The seven SI base units and the interdependency of their definitions. Clockwise from top: kelvin (temperature),second (time), metre (length), kilogram (mass), candela (luminous intensity), mole (amount of substance) and ampere (electric current). The International System of Units (abbreviated SI from French: Le Systme international d'units) is the modern form of the metric system. It comprises a coherent system of units of measurement built around seven base units, 22 named and an indeterminate number of unnamed coherent derived units, and a set of prefixes that act as decimal-based multipliers. The standards, published in 1960, are based on the metre-kilogram-second system, rather than the centimetre-gram-second system, which, in turn, had several variants. The SI has been declared to be an evolving system; thus prefixes and units are created and unit definitions are modified through international agreement as the technology of measurement progresses, and as the precision of measurements improves. SI is the world's most widely used system of measurement, used in both everyday commerce and science.[1][2][3] The system has been nearly globally adopted. Only Burma,Liberia and the United States have not adopted SI units as their official system of weights and measures. In the United States metric units are not commonly used outside of science, medicine and the government;[4] however, United States customary units are officially defined in terms of SI units. The United Kingdom has officially adopted a partial metricationpolicy, with no intention of replacing imperial units entirely. Canada has adopted it for most purposes, but imperial units are still legally permitted and remain in common use throughout a few sectors of Canadian society, particularly in the buildings, trades and railways sectors.

Units and prefixes

The International System of Units consists of a set of base units, a set of derived units, some of which have special names and a set decimal-based multipliers that are denoted as prefixes. The term "SI Units" includes all three categories, but the term "coherent SI units" includes only base units and coherent derived units. Base units Base units are the building blocks of SI all other units of measure can be derived from the base units. When Maxwell first introduced the concept of a coherent system, he identified three quantities that could be used as base units mass,length and time. Giorgi later identified the need for an electrical base unit theoretically electrical current, potential difference, electrical resistance, electrical charge or any one of a number of other units could have been used as the base unit with the remaining units being then defined by the laws of physics the unit of electric current was chosen for SI. The remaining three base units were added later. SI base units

Unit name

Unit symbol

Quantity

Definition (Incomplete)

Dimension symbol

Original (1793): 110000000 of the meridian through Paris between the North Pole and the Equator. L

metre

length

Current (1983): The distance travelled by light in vacuum in 1299792458 second Original (1793): The grave was defined as being the weight [mass] of one cubic decimetre of pure water at its freezing point. Current (1889): The mass of the International Prototype Kilogram Original (Medieval): 186400 of a day Current (1967): The duration of 9192631770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground T

kilogram

kg

mass

second

time

state of the caesium 133 atom

Original (1881): A tenth of the electromagnetic CGS unit of current. [The [CGS] emu unit of current is that current, flowing in an arc 1 cm long of a circle 1 cm in radius creates a field of one oersted at the centre. Current (1946): The 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 produce between these conductors a force equal to 2107 newton per metre of length I

ampere

electric current

kelvin

thermodynamic temperature

Original (1743): The centigrade scale is obtained by assigning 0 to the freezing point of water and 100 to the boiling point of water. Current (1967): The fraction 1273.16 of the thermodynamic temperature of the triple point of water

Original (1900): The molecular weight of a substance in mass grams. Current (1967): The amount of substance of a system which contains as many elementary entities as there are atoms in 0.012 kilogram of carbon 12. Original (1946):The value of the new candle is such that the brightness of the full radiator at the temperature of solidification of platinum is 60 new candles per square centimetre Current (1979): The luminous intensity, in a given direction, of a source that N

mole

mol

amount of substance

candela

cd

luminous intensity

emits monochromatic radiation of frequency 5401012hertz and that has a radiant intensity in that direction of 1683 watt per steradian. Note 1. ^ Despite the prefix "kilo-", the kilogram is the base unit of mass. The kilogram, not the gram, is used in the definitions of derived units. Nonetheless, units of mass are named as if the gram were the base unit. 2. ^ When the mole is used, the elementary entities must be specified and may be atoms, molecules, ions, electrons, other particles, or specified groups of such particles The original definitions of the various base units in the above table were made by the following authorities:

FG = French Government IEC = International Electrical Congress ICAW = International Committee on Atomic Weights

Derived units Derived units are formed by powers, products or quotients of the base units and are unlimited in number, derived units are associated with derived quantities, for example velocity is a quantity that is derived from the base quantities of time and distance which, in SI, has the dimensions metres per second (symbol m/s). The dimensions of derived units can be expressed in terms of the dimensions of the base units. Some derived units have special names, for example the unit of force is the newton. Coherent units (such as those in SI) are derived units that contain no numerical factor other than 1: in the example above, one newton is the force required to accelerate a mass of one kilogram by one metre per second squared. Since the SI units of mass and acceleration are kg and ms2 respectively and F m a, the units of force (and hence of newtons) is formed by multiplication to give kgms2. Since the newton is part of a coherent set of units, the constant of proportionality is 1. Named units derived from SI base units

Name

Symbol

Quantity

Expressed Expressed in in terms of terms of SI base units other SI

units

radian

rad

angle

m/m

steradian

sr

solid angle

m2/m2

hertz

Hz

frequency

s1

newton

force, weight

kgms2

pascal

Pa

pressure, stress

N/m2

kgm1s2

joule

energy, work, heat

Nm

kgm2s2

watt

power, radiant flux

J/s

kgm2s3

coulomb

electric charge or quantity of electricity

sA

volt

voltage, electrical potential difference, electromotive force

W/A

kgm2s3A1

farad

electric capacitance

C/V

kg1m2s4A2

ohm

electric resistance, impedance, reactance

V/A

kgm2s3A2

siemens

electrical conductance

A/V

kg1m2s3A2

weber

Wb

magnetic flux

Vs

kgm2s2A1

tesla

magnetic field strength

Wb/m2

kgs2A1

henry

inductance

Wb/A

kgm2s2A2

degree Celsius

temperature relative to 273.15 K

lumen

lm

luminous flux

cdsr

cd

lux

lx

illuminance

lm/m2

m2cd

becquerel

Bq

radioactivity (decays per unit time)

s1

gray

Gy

absorbed dose (of ionizing radiation)

J/kg

m2s2

sievert

Sv

equivalent dose (of ionizing radiation)

J/kg

m2s2

katal

kat

catalytic activity

s1mol

Notes 1. The radian and steradian, once given special status, are now considered dimensionless derived units. 2. The ordering of this table is such that any derived unit is based only on base units or derived units that precede it in the table.

Prefixes A prefix may be added to a unit to produce a multiple of the original unit. All multiples are integer powers of ten, and beyond a hundred(th) all are integer powers of a thousand. For example, kilo- denotes a multiple of a thousand and milli- denotes a multiple of a thousandth; hence there are one thousand millimetres to the metre and one thousand metres to the kilometre. The prefixes are never combined, and multiples of the kilogram are named as if the gram was the base unit. Thus a millionth of a metre is a micrometre, not a millimillimetre, and a millionth of a kilogram is a milligram, not a microkilogram.

Standard prefixes for the SI units of measure

Name

deca- hecto- kilo- mega- giga- tera- peta- exa- zetta- yotta-

Multiples Prefix

da

Factor 100 101

102

103

106

109

1012 1015

1018 1021

1024

Name

deci- centi- milli- micro- nano- pico- femto- atto- zepto- yocto-

Fractions Prefix

Factor 100 101

102

103 106

109

1012 1015

1018 1021

1024

Importance of the standard unit

Standard units play an important role in identifying the optimum check of how much quantity has been consumed in which ratio. For example a person travelling through car needs to know the miles covered so that he can have a check on the milescovered and can forecast the time in which he will cover more miles to reach to the target destination. Standard units have their usage in daily activities such as buying or selling sugar, consuming food items, consuming calories, covering distances, estimating the lengths for furniture for giving orders to carpenters, measuring the size for designing clothes, time duration to complete a round of walk in an exercise etc. The system of measurements is very important in everyday life. In the past, various systems of measurements were used. For example, length was measured in units like foot, yard, chain and mile . Weight was measured in units like pound, ounce, kati, tahil. Today, many countries in the world use the same units of measurements. We say that they use standard units. The standard units used are the S.I. units. Mass is measured in kilograms (kg) and length is measured in metres (m). The use of standard units makes it easier for people from

different countries to communicate with each other. Furthermore, the use of standard units means a measurement in that unit has the same value anywhere in the world.

Advantages of the standard unit

The great advantage of the SI over other systems of units is that when any physical quantity whatever it is written out in the SI base units or in units derived only from the SI base units; any mathematical manipulations performed with them will follow the quantity calculus. No conversion factors will ever be required. This means that if the symbols in any equation are replaced by real numbers with their SI base units and algebraic manipulations are performed upon the units in exactly the same way as they are performed upon the numbers to which those units refer, the result will come out with the correct numbers and units.

Disadvantages of the standard unit

It is very difficult to relate things in a unit of measure which is unfamiliar. Adopting SI would be difficult for everyday operations. Many people are reluctant to convert over from Imperial Units.

Problems that may arise if standard unit is not used

If you use units of measurement that arent standard, you may end up with a meaningless result, or a result that no one else would understand. E.g. If your watch ticks at 47 times per minute and you use your watch to time something, your result would be pretty useless to someone whose watch ticks at the (SI) 60 times per minute. It will cause confusion and disagreement among people that are using different units of measurement. E.g. one people use arm span to measure a length of a cloth and another is using metre(m) so there will confusing and misunderstanding between them. Some of the problems that may arise if Standard International (SI) units are not used include conflict or discrepancies in data collection since there is no standard measurement, conflicting results amongst the various research personalities as well as inaccurate representation. These are basically the derived units that are mostly expressed in terms of the base units.