Scientific Measurement

Measurement is fundamental to the experimental science. The references we use are called the metric system, and a base 10 system.

There are two types of measurement:
Quantitative; give results in a definite form, usually as numbers.
E.g. The temperature is 31.7°

Qualitative; give results in a non-descriptive, non-numeric form.
E.g. The temperature is very warm

Accuracy & Precision
Accuracy is how close a single measurement comes to the actual dimension or true value of whatever is measured. Precision is how close several measurements are to the same value.

Scientific Notation
In scientific notation, a number is written as the product of two numbers as a coefficient and the power of 10 or 'E' E.g. 0.00000327 = 3.27E-6

Simple math with scientific notation:
- When multiplying notation; multiply the coefficients, and add the indices
e.g. 6.0E5 x 4.0E6 = 24E11 = 2.4E12
- When dividing notation; divide the coefficients and subtract the indices
e.g. 6.0xE4 / 4.0E8 = 1.5E-4

Scientific Notation Prefixes