Chapter 1

Introduction to Engineering Calculations

Units and dimensions
Conversion of units
System of units
Force and weight
Dimensional homogeneity and dimensionless
quantities
Introduction to engineering calculations
 Units and dimensions
A dimension is a property that can be measured such as
length, time, mass, pressure or temperature.
 Itcan also be calculated by multiplying or dividing other
dimensions, such as length/time (velocity), length3
(volume) or mass/volume (density), Newton (mass x
acceleration)
 Units are the means of expressing the dimension such as
feet or centimeters for length and seconds or hours for
time.
Introduction to engineering calculations
 Units can be treated by algebraic variables when quantities are
added, subtracted, multiplied, or divided. The numerical values of
two quantities may be added or subtracted only if the units are
same.
 3 cm- 1 cm = 2 cm
 3 cm – 1 second = ?
 On the other hand, numerical values and their corresponding units
may always be combined by multiplication or division
 3 N x 4m = 12 N.m
 3 m x 4m = 12m2
 5.0 km x 4 hr = 20 km/hr
Introduction to engineering calculations
 Conversion of units
 Converting a quantity expressed in terms of one unit
to its equivalent in terms of another unit is known as
to be conversion of units.
 A measured quantity can be expressed in terms of
any units having the appropriate dimension.
 For instance velocity may be expressed in ft/sec,
miles/hr, cm/year, or any other ratio of a length unit
to a time unit.
 The numerical value of the velocity will depend
entirely on what unit has been chosen.
Introduction to engineering calculations
 While converting units a conversion factor is always
required that has some numerical value.
 What conversion factor you will use in order to
convert
 Miles to km?
 Kg to g?
 Meter to centimetre?
 Atmospheric pressure to mm of Hg?
 Celsius to Kelvin scale?
Introduction to engineering calculations
Method of carrying out conversion
A vertical line can be used to multiply two
quantitates and then cancelling out common
units.
Convert an acceleration of 1 cm/s2 to its
equivalent in km/year2
System of units
A system of units has the following components
Base unit
 Mass(kg), length(m), time(sec), temperature(T), mole(n), electric
current(A) and luminous intensity(cd).
Multiple units
 Multiples of fractions of base unit such as minutes, hours and
milliseconds.
 It is easier to refer to 3 year than 94,608,000 seconds.

Derived units (are obtained in one or two ways)

 By multiplying and dividing base or multiple unit (cm2, ft/min,
kg.m/s2)
 As defined equivalents of compound units (e.g., 1 N = 1 kg.m/s2, 1
lbf = 32.174 lbm.ft/s2)
System of units used in engineering
calculations
There are more than one system of units
that are being used across the globe such
as
SI (system of international units)
CGS system
American Engineering system
Quantity (Dimension) Base unit Symbol
Length Meter (SI) m
Centimetre (CGS) cm
Foot (AE) ft
Mass Kilogram (SI) kg
Gram (CGS) g
Pound (AE) lbm
Time Second (SI) s
Second (CGS) s
Second (AE) s
Temperature Kelvin (SI) k
Degree Rankine or degree fahrenheit R, F
Force Newton (SI) N
Dyne (CGS) dyn
Pound (AE) lbf
Energy Joule (SI) J
British thermal unit (AE) BTU
Units and their conversions
Convert
30 g/s to its equivalent in kg/h.
30 lbm/s to its equivalent in kg/min.
Convert a volume of 5 ft 3 to its
equivalent in m . 3

Convert 23 lbm.ft/min to its equivalent

2

in kg.cm/s2.
Units and their conversions
Carry out the following conversions
3 wk to milliseconds
554 m4/(day.kg) to cm4/(min.g)
38.1 ft/s to miles/h
0.04 g/(min)(m3) to lbm/(hr)(ft3)
2 L/s to ft3/day
60 mil/hr to ft/sec
6.2 cm/hr2 to nm/sec2
Force and Weight
 Force and weight
 Force is proportional to the product of mass and
acceleration i.e. F = ma
1 N = 1 kg.m/s2
 In an American engineering system, the derived force unit
called a pound force lbf is defined as the product of a unit
mass and the acceleration of gravity at sea level and 45O
altitude which is 32.174 ft/s2.
 So 1 lbf = 32.174 lbm.ft/s2
Force and Weight
 Theweight of an object is the force exerted on the object
by the gravitational attraction. It is denoted by W.
 Suppose that an object of mass m is subjected to a
gravitational force W and if this object is freely falling its
acceleration would be g.
W = mg
 gcis used to denote the conversion factor from natural to
derive units. It is simply a conversion factor and not to be
confused with the gravitational acceleration which is
usually denoted by g.
 Value of gc is 32.174 lbm.ft/lbf.s2 or kg.m/N.s2