FHSST Biology/Units

Imagine you had to make curtains and needed to buy material. The shop assistant would need to know how much material was required. Telling her you need material 2 wide and 6 long would be insufficient—you have to specify the unit (i.e. 2 metres wide and 6 metres long). Without the unit the information is incomplete and the shop assistant would have to guess. If you were making curtains for a doll's house the dimensions might be 2 centimetres wide and 6 centimetres long!

It is not just lengths that have units, all physical quantities have units (e.g. time and temperature).

Table 1.1: SI Base Units
Base quantity Name Symbol
length metre m
mass kilogram kg
time second s
electric current ampere A
thermodynamic temperature kelvin K
amount of substance mole mol
luminous intensity candela cd

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