PHY 301

Classical Physics for Life Sciences

Dr. Elie Lattouf

INSTRUCTOR
BACKGROUND
Dr. Elie Lattouf
[email protected]
Atomic Molecular and Optical
Physics
MS Physics
PhD Physics

PHY 111
SYLLABUS
 PHY301 – Fall 2024
Office: Block A 711N
Office Hours: Monday 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Friday 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

PHY 111
 COURSE GRADING AND PERFORMANCE CRITERIA

Exam I 15% of the total grade

Exam II 20% of the total grade
Exam III 20% of the total grade
Final Exam 30% of the total grade
Quizzes 8% of the total grade
Homework 5% of the total grade
Participation 2% of the total grade

▪ The final grading will take 7 out of the total 9 homework.

▪ Homework will be collected, but not graded. You will receive points for
attempting to do the homework.

PHY 301
111
 COURSE GRADING AND PERFORMANCE CRITERIA

- A valid medical report need to be presented to the guidance office in

order to schedule a makeup exam

PHY 301
PHY 111
 TEXTBOOK
Essential College Physics, Volume 1 by Rex/ Wolfson
International Edition.
ISBN=13: 978-0-321-66618-5.

PHY 301
 Lecture Number Chapters
Week 1 Chapter 1: Measurements in Physics
Week 1 Chapter 2: Motion in One dimension
Week 2 Chapter 3: Motion in Two Dimensions
Quizz 1 (in class)
Week 3 Chapter 4: Force and Newton’s laws of
Motion
Week 4-5 Chapter 5: Work and Energy
Quizz 2 (in class)
Week 6 Chapter 6: Momentum and collision
Exam I: Time and Location TBD
Week 7 Chapter 7: Oscillations
Week 8-9 Chapter 8: Rotational Motion
Quizz 3 (in class)
Week 9-10 Chapter 9: Gravitation
Week 10 Chapter 10: Solids and Fluids
Exam II: Time and Location TBD
Week 11-12-13 Chapter 12: Temperature, Thermal
Expansion, and Ideal Gases
Quizz 4 (in class)
Week 13-14 Chapter 13: Heat
Week 13-14 Chapter 14: The Laws of Thermodynamics
Final Exam: Time and location TBD

PHY 301
 HARD WORK = Success

There are no exceptions,

even Albert Einstein would
fit in this graph
(back when he was a
student)

(Hours of study per week)

This is your choice !
PHY 311
PHY 301
 I am a Biology student !
Why on earth do I have to study
Physics ?

PHY 301
PHY 301
 Chapter 1

Measurement
in Physics
PHY 301
 Distance, Time,
and Mass Measurement
 ⚫ Physics and engineering are based on the precise
measurement of physical quantities
⚫ Therefore, we need:
1. Rules for measurement and comparison
2. Units for measurement

⚫ A unit:
⚫ Is the unique name assigned to the measure of a quantity
(mass, time, length, pressure, etc.)

PHY 301
 ⚫ There are many different physical quantities, but not all are
independent (speed is distance/time)

⚫ Base quantities:
⚫ Seven fundamental quantities
⚫ Three are needed for mechanics: length, time, mass
⚫ All have been assigned standards
⚫ Are used to define all other physical quantities

⚫ Base standards must be:

⚫ Accessible, so precise measurements can be taken
⚫ Invariable, so measurements do not change over time

PHY 301
 ▪ The lack of consistent standards of measurement
hindered both commerce and science in historical
times

▪ Following the French Revolution of the late 18th

century, efforts arose to develop a common system
of units that was both rational and natural.

▪ The foot had been based on the length of one

person’s foot and therefore wasn’t reproducible. The
new distance unit, the meter, was defined as one
ten millionth of an arc from Earth s equator to the
North Pole.

▪ The gram, the unit of mass, was defined as the

mass of one cubic centimeter of water.

▪ The attempt to introduce a decimal system of time

with 100 seconds per minute and so forth proved
unpopular, so we re stuck with 60-second minutes,
60-minute hours, and 24-hour days

▪ Those 18th century unit has evolved into our modern

SI system

PHY 301
 ⚫ SI units (the metric system) form the International
System of Units
⚫ SI base units include
⚫ Meters (length)
⚫ Seconds (time)
⚫ Kilograms (mass)
⚫ SI has many derived units, which are written in
terms of base units
⚫ Joules (work-energy): 1 J = 1 kg m2/s2
⚫ Watts (power): 1 W = 1 J/s = 1 kg m2/s3

PHY 301
 General Knowledge !
Distance
⚫ Needs for accuracy in science have driven changes in the
standards for units
⚫ In the past, 1 meter has been defined by:
1. One ten-millionth of the distance from the North pole to the equator
(1972)
2. A platinum-iridium standard meter bar kept in France
3. 1 650 763.73 wavelengths of an emission line of Kr-86 (1960)
Today (1983),

⚫In each transition, the new distance was chosen so that the
approximate length of 1 meter was preserved

PHY 301
 General Knowledge !
Distance

http://htwins.net/scale2/

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PHY 301
 Geometry

PHY 301
 General Knowledge !
Time

⚫ Any standard of time needs to be able to answer:

o When did a thing happen?
o What was its duration?
⚫ Times follow the same conversion process as lengths
⚫ Standards of time in the past have included:
1. Rotation of Earth
2. Quartz vibrations
3. Atomic clocks (cesium), with time signals sent out by radio
so others can calibrate their clocks

PHY 301
 General Knowledge !
Mass

⚫ The standard kilogram is a cylinder of platinum and

iridium stored in France.
⚫ Accurate copies have been sent around the world,
other masses can be measured by comparing them
against these copies
⚫ The atomic mass unit (u) is a second mass standard
⚫ 1 atom of Carbon-12 is assigned a mass 12 u
⚫ Used for measuring masses of atoms and molecules
⚫ 1 u = 1.660 538 86 x 10-27 kg (+/- 10 x 10-35 kg)

PHY 301
 General Knowledge !

⚫ Mass per unit volume is called density

Examples Calculate . . .
o Density of material: (18 kg) / (0.032 m3) = 560 kg/m3
o Mass of object: (380 kg/m3) x (0.0040 m3) = 1.5 kg
o Volume of object: (250 kg) / (1280 kg/m3) = 0.20 m3

PHY 301
 System of Units
We will use the SI system – SI  International System of Units

Fundamental Quantities
Length meter [m]
Mass kilogram [kg]
Time second [s]

Derived Quantities
Force newton 1 N = 1 kg m / s2
Energy joule 1J=1Nm
Charge coulomb 1 C=1As
Electric Potential volt 1V=1J/C
Resistance ohm 1=1V/A

PHY 301
⚫ Scientific notation employs powers of 10 to write
large or small numbers

This number should between 1 and 10

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Converting units
 ⚫ A conversion factor is
⚫ A ratio of units that is equal to 1
⚫ Used to convert between units

⚫ Units obey the same algebraic rules as variables and

numbers

PHY 301
 Converting Units
▪ Sometimes we use non-SI units because they are more
useful.
▪ For example, we express car speed in km/h instead of
m/s.
▪ Similarly chemists and biologist use cm and grams (g).

▪ English system (adopted in the USA) use miles per hour

(mi/hr)

Exp: converting 316 ft feet to meters:

1 m = 3.281 ft (this is a conversion factor) or 1 = 1m/3.281 ft.
316 ft = 316 ft * (1m/3.281 ft) = 96.3 m.

PHY 301
PHY 301
Dimensional Analysis
 Dimensional Analysis
▪ Any physical formula must be dimensionally consistent
(each term must have the same dimension).

Base quantities Notation SI Unit

Length L m

Time T s

Mass M Kg

PHY 301
Measurement, Uncertainty,
and Significant Figures
 Measurement and Uncertainty

▪ Accuracy refers to how close a measurement is to

the true or accepted value
▪ Precision refers to the uncertainty of individual
measurement, it describes the repeated reliability of
individual measurements and it can depend on the
precision of the instrument used in the measurement.

It is possible to be very precise and lack of accuracy.

You can use a numerical scale to weigh yourself. You make the measurements 3
times and you get a value of 60.54 kg. However your real mass is closer to 59.2 kg.
The scale you used is not accurate but it has precision.

PHY 301
 Significant Figures
Significant figures are meaningful digits

32.60 kg has 4 sig. figs

Scientific Not: 3.260×103 kg.
0.01450m = 1450×10-5 m.

2500 = 2.5×103 has 2 sig figs

2500 = 2.50×103 has 3 sig figs

PHY 301
 Significant Figures
▪ Suppose a car s mass is given as 1500 kg. It s not clear whether
the zeros here are significant or merely mark the decimal point.
Which it is depends on the precision of the scale used to weigh
the car. Is it good to the nearest kilogram, or only the nearest 100
kg?

▪ In this book you can assume that all the figures shown are
significant. In this case, that would mean 1500 kg has four
significant figures.

▪ We would write to express 1.5 x 103 Kg a measurement good to

only two significant figures.

PHY 301
• Significant Figures in Calculations

- When Multiplying or Dividing two quantities, the answer

should be reported with a number of sig figs equal to the
smaller number of sig figs in the two factors:
14.25 m × 8.23 m = 117.2775 m2 = 117 m2 .
YOU WRITE 117 m2 (3 SIG FIGS ONLY!!!)

- When adding or subtracting two quantities, the number of

decimal places in the result equals the smallest number of
decimal places in any of the values you started with:
6.459m + 11.2 m = 17.659 m = 17.76 = 17.8 m
It is rounded to 1 decimal point!

PHY 301
 Significant Figures

PHY 301
TIP: DON’T ROUND OF YOUR NUMBERS TOO EARLY, KEEP
ALL DIGITS IN YOUR CALCULATOR, ONLY ROUND UP
YOUR FINAL RESULT.

PHY 301
Order of Magnitude

▪ Physicists often make order-of-magnitude estimates, giving a

physical quantity to the nearest power of 10 or to within a factor of
10.

▪ Doing an order-of-magnitude estimate is useful for checking that a

computation makes sense.

PHY 301
Summary