Chapter 1
The Basics of Physics
By Boundless
![Thumbnail](../../../../../figures.boundless-cdn.com/10416/square/gps.jpeg)
Physics is a study of how the universe behaves.
![Thumbnail](../../../../../figures.boundless-cdn.com/10419/raw/covalent-bond-hydrogen.jpg)
Physics is the foundation of many disciplines and contributes directly to chemistry, astronomy, engineering, and most scientific fields.
![Thumbnail](../../../../../figures.boundless-cdn.com/10402/square/atom-diagram.jpg)
The terms model, theory, and law have exact meanings in relation to their usage in the study of physics.
![Thumbnail](../../../../../figures.boundless-cdn.com/10200/square/figure-01-02-03a.jpeg)
Length is a physical measurement of distance that is fundamentally measured in the SI unit of a meter.
![Thumbnail](../../../../../figures.boundless-cdn.com/17188/square/prototype-mass-drifts.jpeg)
Mass is the quantity of matter that an object contains, as measured by its resistance to acceleration.
![Thumbnail](../../../../../figures.boundless-cdn.com/10311/square/f1clock.jpeg)
Time is the fundamental physical quantity of duration and is measured by the SI Unit known as the second.
![Thumbnail](../../../../../figures.boundless-cdn.com/10322/square/-10-11-20at-204.59.10-20pm.jpg)
SI prefixes precede a basic unit of measure to indicate a multiple or fraction of the unit.
![Thumbnail](../../../../../figures.boundless-cdn.com/10346/square/10-12-20at-2012.50.11-20am.jpg)
Converting between units can be done through the use of conversion factors or specific conversion formulas.
![Thumbnail](../../../../../figures.boundless-cdn.com/11165/square/scientific-notation2.jpg)
Scientific notation is a way of writing numbers that are too big or too small in a convenient and standard form.
A round-off error is the difference between the calculated approximation of a number and its exact mathematical value.
![Thumbnail](../../../../../figures.boundless-cdn.com/11186/square/10-18-20at-2012.03.41-20am.jpg)
An order of magnitude is the class of scale of any amount in which each class contains values of a fixed ratio to the class preceding it.
Any physical quantity can be expressed as a product of a combination of the basic physical dimensions.
![Thumbnail](../../../../../figures.boundless-cdn.com/17406/square/fbd10a.gif)
Trigonometry is central to the use of free body diagrams, which help visually represent difficult physics problems.
![Thumbnail](../../../../../figures.boundless-cdn.com/17404/square/free-body-diagram.jpg)
Free body diagrams use geometry and vectors to visually represent the problem.