Scientific measurement: advancing from primitive way of measure to technological way

Over 2000 years ago, man use to measure time using the sunlight light that cast on the Earth. The length of shadow cast on man was used to determine time. When the sun rise, it shows the morning and when it set, it shows that it’s even. For of the animal cry were used to tell time. For instance, certain birds were noted to chirp on time like 12 noon, 1pm and 6pm. Again, our feet were used to measure small distances. These were some of the primitive way in which measurement were done. But today, technology has been advanced, through science and technology we can measure accurately without stressing ourselves.

Measurement is therefore the way of knowing the size, the length, or the quantity of a substance or an object accurately.

The reason why we measure:

1•We measure to get accurate of object

2• We measure to prevent overdose and underdose

3• We measure to prevent cheating

Changing from primitive way to technological way

Now we do not measure the time by watch how the sun has cast on the Earth. We measure the time using stop watch, wrist watch, wall crock and many others. We're able to determine every second, minutes or hours the time is. Most of electronics devices announce accurate of the day; our mobile phone, radio broadcasting, television and laptops have time that even if you aren't aware they announce the time of the day or when certain events are going on.

Our feet are no longer in used to measure, neither our arms in measuring yards. We have tape measure, surveyor's tape, rulers for measuring distances in millimeters, centimeters, metres and kilometers. We are comfortable in using them to measure distances and get accurate results.

What do we use in measuring the quantities of food groceries we buy in our local markets like oil, sugar, maize, beans, beef and others? Those market items have some Measuring instrument we use to quantify them. For instance in our local markets, we use bottles in measuring the quantities of oil we are buying. The bottle are equivalent to litres of contains. We have margarine tin for measuring rice. Most rice are currently measured in bags, either in 5kg or 50kg bag of rice. In the same way, maize are measured using similar bags, 60kg. Due to this, they have fixed price attached to them to prevent cheating.

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Beef and chicken can be measured using compression balance. The quantity of beef or the meat is weighed on the compression balance. When it reach the quantity you're buying, the seller package them in a container and collect his money.

Quantity of substance

Quantity is therefore the amount of substance contained in a material. We want to know the quantity of every substances so that we can measure accurately. Depending on the item you're measuring would determine which quantity you are using.

Fundamental/Base quantity: this is the quantity which form the basis of all quantities in which other quantities were derived from. Examples are length, Time, Temperature and amount of substance.

Derived quantities:

These are quantities which were derived from combination of two or more of the base or fundamental quantities. Examples are volume, area and density. For volume is the combination of length; at regular objects, it's 3 dimensional space. That's L×B×H in the case of rectangle. In the case of square we can use all the 3 length; that's L×L×L. The density is measured by taking mass over volume of an object. The standard unit is kilogram per metre cube or cubic metre. Area is measure by taken the space covered by a surface which is is square metre.

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Gradually we are in the transitional World. The way of measuring substances have advanced more than before and it continues to evolve. We are in revolutionary stage of technology and we anticipate more to come. Thanks for your attention!

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