There are seven different Standardised International (SI) units of measurements from which all others are derived. These are:

Name
Phenomenon
Units
meter
Length
m
second
time
s
kilogram
mass
kg
ampere
electric current
A
kelvin
thermodynamic temperature
K
mole
Amount of substance
mol
Luminous intensity
candela
cd

There are 22 derived physical phenomena, shown below. The names, phenomena, units and base units have been mixed up.

  1. Sort them into the correct order and work out how their units may be represented with base SI units.
  2. For each pheonomena, how many examples of biological application can you find? Can you find an example from biology for each one of these processes?
Name
Phenomenon
Units
Base units
becquerel, Bq
capacitance
A / V
m2m-2cd
degrees Celsius, o C
electric conductance
C / V
K
coulomb, C
electric potential
cd sr
kg s-2 A-1
farad, F
electric resistance
J / kg
m kg s-2
gray, Gy
electrical charge
J / kg
m1m-1
henry, H
energy
J / S
m-1 kg s-2
Hertz, Hz
flux of light
             lm / m2 m2 m-4 cd
joule, J
force
             N / m2 m2 kg s-2
katal, kat
frequency
N m
m2 kg s-2 A-1
lumen, lm
illuminance
V / A
m2 kg s-2 A-2
lux, lx
inductance
V s
m2 kg s-3
newton, N
magnetic flux
W / A
m2 kg s-3 A-1
ohm, ?
magnetic flux density
Wb / A
m2 kg s-3 A-2
pascal, Pa
plane angle
             Wb / m2 m-2 kg-1 s3 A2
radian, rad
power
m-2 kg-1 s4 A2
siemens, S
pressure
m2 s-2
sievert, Sv
radiation dose
m2m-2
steradian, sr
solid angle
sA
tesla, T
temperature
s-1
volt, V
unit of catalytic activity
s-1 mol
watt, W
weber, Wb

(date sourced from the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures http://www.bipm.org/)

Other problems

Try Universal Time, Mass, Length to investigate the units implicit in the fundamental constants of nature.

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