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Question
Guess whose tail is the longest. Now measure the tails. How good is your guess?
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Solution
I think the tail of the monkey is the longest.
Correct measurements are as follows:
| Animal | Lizard | Rat | Cat | Puppy | Monkey | Pig |
| Length of tail | 1.7 cm | 1.3 cm | 1.2 cm | 0.8 cm | 2.2 cm | 1.0 cm |
Hint: Use thread to measure the tails of animals given in the figure.
RELATED QUESTIONS
The farthest objects in our Universe discovered by modern astronomers are so distant that light emitted by them takes billions of years to reach the Earth. These objects (known as quasars) have many puzzling features, which have not yet been satisfactorily explained. What is the distance in km of a quasar from which light takes 3.0 billion years to reach us?
The principle of ‘parallax’ in section 2.3.1 is used in the determination of distances of very distant stars. The baseline AB is the line joining the Earth’s two locations six months apart in its orbit around the Sun. That is, the baseline is about the diameter of the Earth’s orbit ≈ 3 × 1011m. However, even the nearest stars are so distant that with such a long baseline, they show parallax only of the order of 1” (second) of arc or so. A parsec is a convenient unit of length on the astronomical scale. It is the distance of an object that will show a parallax of 1” (second) of arc from opposite ends of a baseline equal to the distance from the Earth to the Sun. How much is a parsec in terms of meters?
When the planet Jupiter is at a distance of 824.7 million kilometres from the Earth, its angular diameter is measured to be 35.72″ of arc. Calculate the diameter of Jupiter
Just as precise measurements are necessary in science, it is equally important to be able to make rough estimates of quantities using rudimentary ideas and common observations. Think of ways by which you can estimate the following (where an estimate is difficult to obtain, try to get an upper bound on the quantity):-
the number of air molecules in your classroom.
What are the S.I. units of
- mass
- length
- time and
- temperature.
Write their names and symbols.
Exercise
Match the following.
| 1. | Length of the fore arm | metre |
| 2. | SI unit of length | second |
| 3. | Nano | 103 |
| 4. | SI Unit of time | 10–9 |
| 5. | Kilo | Cubit |
Match the following.
| 1. | Length | kelvin |
| 2. | Mass | metre |
| 3. | Time | kilogram |
| 4. | Temperature | second |
How close was your earlier guess? Discuss.
The fencing of a square garden is 20 m in length. How long is one side of the garden?
Chumki, Jhumri, and Imran need wire to make a fence.
- How much wire in all will the three need?
So Anar also tried many different ways to make a boundary for 800 square meters of land.
He made rectangles A, B, and C of different sizes. Find out the length of the boundary of each. How much gold wire will he get for these rectangles?
- A
Gold wire for A = _________ metres - B
Gold wire for B = _________ metres - C
Gold wire for C = __________ metres
But then Anar made an even longer rectangle... See how long!
- D
So he will get __________ metres of gold wire!!
What is the unit of measurements of very small lengths?
What is the unit of length?
SI unit of electric current is ______.
- The earth-moon distance is about 60 earth radius. What will be the diameter of the earth (approximately in degrees) as seen from the moon?
- Moon is seen to be of (½)°diameter from the earth. What must be the relative size compared to the earth?
- From parallax measurement, the sun is found to be at a distance of about 400 times the earth-moon distance. Estimate the ratio of sun-earth diameters.
The distance of a galaxy is of the order of 1025 m. Calculate the order of magnitude of time taken by light to reach us from the galaxy.
What is the SI unit of length?
Which instruments are used to measure very small distances at the atomic scale?
