Video Transcript
A book is 500 grams. Which of the following is not specified in the previous measurement? (a) The object involved in the measurement, (b) the quantity measured, (c) the unit of the measured value, (d) the value of the measurement.
The measurement referred to in the question is a measurement of this book that returned a result of 500 grams. So we measured a book and got back a result of 500 grams. Notably, we don’t know what measurement was performed on the book, only that our result was 500 grams.
Let’s now look at our answer choices. Answer choice (a) suggests that the object involved in the measurement is not specified in the question. But indeed it is. We know that the object measured is a book. So, (a) is not the correct answer. Choice (b) suggests that we don’t know what quantity of the book was measured. And this looks like it’s the correct answer, because we haven’t specified what measurement we performed on the book, only that its result was 500 grams.
Let’s check choices (c) and (d) just to be sure. Choice (c) suggests that we don’t know the unit of the measured value. But we do know the unit of the measured value. It is grams. That’s given to us in the question. Similarly, choice (d) suggests that we don’t know the value of the measurement. But again, we do know the value of the measurement. In this case, it is 500, and that is also given to us in the question. So choices (c) and (d) are not correct because 500 grams is indeed the value and unit of our measurement. So indeed it is the quantity that we have measured that is not specified in the information given.
This is an important point, so it is worth stressing. A full description of a measurement always includes the object that is measured, the quantity of that object that is measured, and then a value for that quantity and appropriate units attached to that value.
