METRIC FUN
Education in George

The 2015 edition of Wacek's book is a difficult-to-put-down book: entertaining, stimulating, thought provoking and intellectually satisfying which is unusual for a book covering rather tedious topics of SI/metric system, conversion, measurement skills and data handling. Answers to the test questions and the puzzles are given at the back of the book. Living in the twentieth century, we are familiar with the accurate measurement of time, distance, weight, volume, and so on. Months were measured by noting the changing shape of the moon and then notching a piece of wood in order to record that change. The Egyptians several thousand years ago used a shadow stick to measure the passage of time. (Personal clocks did not come into use for another two hundred years!) The Egyptians also used the position of stellar constellations to draw up a calendar, and held celebrations when notable changes occurred. Basic science fosters a kind of attitude that will be most productive in whatever work will finally end up with.Training in basic science often produces the best candidates for applied work. Many experiments carried out in physics and chemistry are quantitative. They involve assigning numbers to length, mass, time, current, density etc. The thing which can be measured is called the physical quantity. Most quantities have units and each unit has a name and its own symbol. Over the years, human beings have used many systems of units and many standards for physical and chemical measurements. Before 1960, three systems of units were in existence: cgs, mks and fps (the British, imperial or often called in USA, the inch-pound) systems. It is a great nuisance that knowledge can be acquired by hard work. It is recommended instead of a unit factor method which is still widely used and which requires remembering unit factors. The unit factor method is inefficient and therefore, not suitable to use in more complex conversions encountered in physics. Science cannot proceed far without availing itself of measurement, i.e. reading numbers from an instrument designed for that purpose. This means that your result is, to some extent, uncertain. If your instrument is not of a very good quality or if the measured quantity varies, or if you are not careful in taking readings, then your result will be less accurate and the uncertainty of your result will be greater. SUs have always the direction and often the same magnitude. Numbers quantify information; there are essential to understand facts events, processes, laws. Once information is quantified, they can carry specific meaning. Generally there are some variations in the presentation of laboratory reports in different science subjects. The practical work should be carried out in an organized way.