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Standard Measurement Units
PhysicsUnits and measurements

Introduction

Measurement is an important part of daily life and without that; it is difficult to describe any object or anything. Many kinds of measurement units have been used for a long time and sometimes it varies to place.

Many new units also have been introduced with time and need. However, the need for a universal measurement unit was there, to sum up, every other unit, and this process gave birth to the Standard Measurement Unit.

What is a Standard Measurement Unit?


Figure 1: Conversion between grams and milligrams

In today's time, the Standard Measurement Unit is also known as the SI Unit. It is the most commonly used measurement unit that helps to understand length, weight, height and many more (Mari, Ehrlich & Pendrill, 2018). Standard Measurement Unit can be defined as a value that cannot be changed or modified, in short, it is fixed. It was essential to create consistency in the Universal measurement units. The full form of SI is derived from a French word, Système International (NIST, 2022). This measurement unit system is accepted universally, and used for scientific research. The measurement is a concept that helps to understand the association of an object.

Concept of International System of Units

  • International System of Units is a system of units that were established and accepted majorly by most of the developed and developing countries.

The idea that gives birth to this unit system is to tackle problems regarding different kinds of measurement units (cbsedigitaleducation, 2022). From the very beginning, people do not have any measurement units with which they can calculate the SI units that is when they felt the importance of a unique way of measurement with whatever tool they had. For example, in earlier times, civilians used leagues to measure the length.

  • The league is the amount of distance that one person can cover in an hour (Newell & Tiesinga, 2019).

However, today the league measures are of no use. For this reason, it is accepted and welcomed by the field of science and technology, even by the government operation, to end any kind of confusion regarding measurement units.

However, in some places, people still refer to the measurement in their traditional unit system (Mari, Ehrlich & Pendrill, 2018). For example, the people of America still refer to the length as inch and feet and not as cm and meters.

The International system of units, that is also called SI unit is also referred to as the Standard Measurement Unit, which can be used to define any kind of physical quantities.

Use and advantage of Standard Measurement Units

Use of Standard Measurement Units

To bring more accuracy to the measurement system the Standard Measurement Units is used. There are many sets of units in different places to measure the length, weight, area, mass and more (Newell & Tiesinga, 2019). If the measurement unit differs in places, it becomes difficult to communicate especially in the science and technology field. One can imagine how complicated things will go if different measurement units exist in the same space (thoughtco, 2022). That is why it is important to have unity in the measurement and there should be a common set of units, which is why the SI units are used in major countries.


Figure 2: Different types of SI units

Advantages of Standard Measurement Units

There are many advantages of the SI unit system. It makes people understand measurements in the same unit system and that helps people communicate and discuss anything because it is used all over the world (thoughtco, 2022).

  • The most important thing is it has only one unit for each quantity. As almost everywhere the measurement system is common, it is beneficial for the field of science and technology, because scientists and researchers can communicate and discuss their achievements or boundaries (nist, 2022).
  • It is important for common people too, it helps them to continue the communication wherever they go. One disadvantage of this unit system is that it talks about only one unit and as a result, others get zero importance.

SI base units

There are seven base units of measurement.

  • The unit of mass is Kilogram, and it is used as kg, the abbreviated form of Kilogram
  • The unit of length is Meter, which is referred to as only m.
  • Unit of time is defined as second in short only s.
  • Ampere is used as the unit of electric current and denoted as A.
  • The unit of temperature is kelvin and it is referred to as the abbreviated form K.
  • The unit of an amount of substance is defined as Mole and the last one
  • the unit of Luminous Intensity is Candela and it is denoted as the cd.

Conclusion

The base 7 units of measurement are considered as the mutual process that is used all over the world and the other units of measurement are derived from that. These standard Measurement Units helped the process of development in the field of science and research. It can be based on one base unit or it is a combination of base units or other established units that are derived. All those units help the overall progress of science. There are a few more SI units used in physics. They are, Tesla, the unit of magnetic field and the joule, the base unit of heat.

FAQs

Q1. What are the 7 base units of the Standard Measurement Units?

There are seven SI units of measurement and are Kilogram or kg, meter or m, second or s, Ampere or A, kelvin as K, mole and the last one candela or cd.

Q2. What is the use of Standard Measurement Units?

There were different kinds of measurement units all over the world, however, for the progress of science was important to have a common set of units, and that gave birth to the concept of Standard Measurement Units

Q3. What is the SI unit of magnetic field?

The SI unit of magnetic field is Tesla.

References

Journals

Newell, D. B., & Tiesinga, E. (2019). The international system of units (SI). NIST Special Publication, 330, 1-138. Retrived from: https://nvlpubs.nist.gov

Mari, L., Ehrlich, C., & Pendrill, L. (2018). Measurement units as quantities of objects or values of quantities: a discussion. Metrologia, 55(5), 716. Retrived from: https://www.researchgate.net

Websites

Cbsedigitaleducation (2022), Units and Measurements, Retrieved from:

https://www.cbsedigitaleducation.com [Retrieved on: 17.06.2022]

nist (2022), SI Units, Retrieved from:https://www.nist.gov [Retrived on: 17.062022]

thoughtco (2022), International System of Measurement (SI), Retrieved from:https://www.thoughtco.com [Retrieved on: 17.062022]

Study Materials