Question

What is the unit for measuring the following distance between Delhi and Jaipur?

Answer 1

Hint:In physics, Distance is defined as the magnitude or size of displacement between two positions of an object. Remember, the distance between two positions is not the same as the distance travelled between them. Distance is a scalar quantity.

Complete answer:
Let us first understand the basic systems of measurements. The first one is SI which stands for International Systems of Units It has seven basic units of measurement and the unit which measures distance under SI unit is metre which is denoted as $m$.

For example, if we say the distance between Delhi and Jaipur is $3,00,000\,m$ and we measure this distance in SI units then we have to write it as $3,00,000\,m$. And it’s generally written in $kilo$ measurements so we can say the distance between Delhi and Jaipur is $300\,Km$.

The second one is the CGS system which stands for $\text{Centimetre - gram - \sec}$. It is a variant of the metric system based on the $\text{Centimetre}$ as the unit of length. So in the CGS system when we will measure the distance between Delhi and Jaipur, it will be measured in $\text{Centimetre}$ which is denoted as $cm$ . So we can say that Distance between Delhi and Jaipur is $30,000,000\,cm$.

Note: In SI unit we measure the distance with unit’s metre $(m)$ and In CGS system of unit we measure distance in units of $\text{Centimetre}$ $(cm)$ , since metre can be in multiple of $Kilometres$ hence, $Km$ is preferred to measure long distances such as Delhi and Jaipur.