Meter Stick PROBLEM! HELP?

Question

I need help! I am helping out my group for Science and we have to do a presentation on the Meter Stick. But I am Lost! I Have no idea what the:
"Base Unit" is
"Big Unit" is
"Small Unit" is
Accuracy" is
Could you help me? And direct me, i already looked at the sites about the meter stick but i still dont undertand it! Please helpp, thanks.

Answer 1

I would guess that the base unit is the meter.



The big uinit is also a meter, because the full length of the meter stick is 1 meter.



The small(est) unit is a mm on most meter sticks, especially those found in schools.



There are 1000 mm in a meter. Therefore the accuracy is 1/1000 or 1 part in 1000. As a percentage this is 1/1000 * 100 = 0.1%. Pretty good when you think about it.

Answer 2

The base unit is the metre (SI).

I would assume the "big unit" to be cm., of which there are 100 in a metre.

The "small unit" is the millimetre, there are 10mm in 1 cm., or 1,000 in 1 metre.

Accuracy of a measurement made with this metre "stick" will be + or - 0.5mm., as the smallest graduations are millimetres. Your measurement could be up to 1/2mm shorter or longer, if the measurement you make does not fall exactly in line with a mm graduation, i.e. you round up or down to the nearest mm mark.

Answer 3

In the eighteenth century, one of the two favoured approaches to the definition of the standard unit of length was the pendulum.One approach followed Wilkins in defining the metre as the length of a pendulum with a half-period of one second



Below is the equation for the period of a pendulum

Time = 2 * π * (L/g)^ 0.5

L = length of pendulum



If L = 1 meter

Time = 2 * π * (1/9.8)^ 0.5 = 2 seconds



You need:

About 1.2 meters of string.

A small metal weight = (100 g)

A ring stand with an iron ring.

A clamp to hold the ring stand on the edge of a table.





Tie one end of the string to a small metal weight. (100 g)

Wrap the other end of the string to the outer edge of the iron ring, so the distance between the center of the weight and the iron ring is 1.1 meters.



Pull the weight to one side, so it swings about 10º from vertical.

Use a stop watch to determine the time for the weight to swing back and forth one time.



Unwrap the string from the outer edge of the iron ring, shorten the length of the pendulum by 1 cm, and determine the time for the weight to swing back and forth one time.



Keep shortening the string by 1 cm and determine the time for the weight to swing back and forth one time.



When the time = 2 seconds, the length of the pendulum = 1 meter