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Can you call a physical quantity large or small without specifying a standard for comparison? Explain. |
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Answer» eaningless to CALL a physical quantity "large' or 'small' WITHOUT specifying a standardbfor comparison. For example, it is too vague to say that a piece of wire is "PRETTY short"; or, to say that it is "much longer than it is wide" is also not saying much. These words of daily life are usually so flexible and ill-defined that they are likely to be misunderstood.Physical sciences do necessarily BEGIN with what we detect by means of our senses. But then to DEVELOP a shared understanding, we must be able to agree in detail on what we have observed and to communicate it without being misunderstood. Therefore, observations in physical sciences are generally quantitative, that is, they are expressed with numerical values. Measurement is the process of estimating the ratio of a magnitude of a quantity to a unit of the same type. The result is expressed as a positive real number and the unit, where the real number is the ratio. |
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