12 Material Balances for Chemical Reacting Systems

TABLE 2.3
Derived SI Units
Physical Quantity Unit (Symbol) Definition
Force Newton (N) kg m/s2
Energy Joule (J) kg m2/s2
Power Watt (W) J/s
Electrical potential Volt (V) J/(A s)
Electric resistance Ohm (Ω) V/A
Frequency Hertz (Hz) cycle/second
Pressure Pascal (Pa) N/m2
Kinematic viscosity Stokes (St) cm2/s
Thermal diffusivity Square meter/second m2/s
Molecular diffusivity Square meter/second m2/s

In terms of mathematical symbols, we express this axiom as

d
f= ( mv ) (2.6)
dt

Here we adopt a nomenclature in which a lower case, boldface Roman font is used to represent vectors such as the
force and the velocity. Force and velocity are quantities that have both magnitude and direction and we need a special
notation to remind us of these characteristics.
Let us now think about the use of Eq. 2.6 to calculate the force required to accelerate a mass of 7 kg at a rate of
13 m/s2. From Eq. 2.6 we determine the magnitude of this force to be

f = (7 kg)(13 m/s 2 ) = 91 kg m/s 2 (2.7)

where f is used to represent the magnitude of the vector f. Note that the force is expressed in terms of three of the
four fundamental standards of measure, i.e., mass, length, and time. There is no real need to go beyond Eq. 2.7 in our
description of force; however, our intuitive knowledge of force is rather different from our knowledge of mass, length
and time. Consider for example, pushing against a wall with a “force” of 91 kg m/s2. This is simply not a satisfactory
description of the event. What we want here is a unit that describes the physical nature of the event, and we obtain
this unit by defining a unit of force as

1 newton = (1 kg) × (1 m/s2 ) (2.8)

When pushing against the wall with a force of 91 kg m/s2 we feel comfortable describing the event as

force = 91 kg m/s2 = (91 kg m/s 2 ) × (1)

 1 newton 
= (91 kg m/s 2 ) ×   = 91 newtons
2 
(2.9)
 kg m/s 

Here we have arranged Eq. 2.8 in the form

newton N
1= = (2.10)
kg m/s2 kg m/s2

and multiplied the quantity 91 kg m/s2 by one in order to affect the change in units. Note that in our definition of the
unit of force we have made use of a one-to-one correspondence represented by Eq. 2.8. This is a characteristic of the
SI system and it is certainly one of its attractive features. One must keep in mind that Eq. 2.8 is nothing more than a
definition and if one wished it could be replaced by the alternate definition given by Truesdell§

1 euler = (17.07 kg) × (1 m/s 2 ) (2.11)

§ Truesdell, C. 1968, Essays in the History of Mechanics, Springer-Verlag, New York.