Dimensional Consistency

and Unit Conversions

Recall
 Dimensions
 Units
 System of units
 Base units
 Multiple units
 Derived units
Dimensionless Quantities
 Easier, in that they do not have units
at all.
 Some ways they are more
complicated Example?
 Ratios…. Has to carry its title with it not unit
 Angles….. an angle is the figure formed by two rays
sharing a common endpoint, called the vertex of the
angle. Degree/radius
 Numbers… specify what you counting
Dimensions and Units……Limitations
 Customary units having wrong dimensions
 Mass-energy
 Mass of electron=0.51MeV
 Pressure… dimensions?? Wt about Blood pressure??
 Be Aware what units are being used

Conventional choices
Depends upon convenience and custom.
 Scientists
 speed…m/s, biologist studying snail motion???
 Chemists
 Concentration…..mol/ litre,,, medical labs???
Considerations
 Thermal quantities
 Electrical quantities
 Mechanical quantities
Moral
Always find out what units are
appropriate for the task at hand and
express your results accordingly.
Consistency of Units

Dimensions and units must be handled consistently.

 Numerical values of two quantities may
be added or subtracted only if the units
are the same
 Numerical values and their
corresponding units may always be
combined by multiplication or divisions.
Dimensional Consistency
 Equations involving physical quantities
must have the same dimensions on both
sides, and the dimensions must be the
correct ones for the quantity calculated.
Dimensional Consistency/Homogenity
 Consequently, the units on both sides
should be the same, and must be at least
equivalent and correct.
Dimensional Consistency…checking
the Units
 Powerful technique for uncovering errors in
calculations.
 Dimensions or units may be considered
algebraic quantities
 Some examples
Density
Checking dimensions for the formulas
e.g;
Example
 A radar gun is used to obtain the
speed of a car as it accelerates from a
stop sign. A graph of speed (y-axis)
vs time (x-axis) is a straight line, so
the student computes a slope
expecting to find the constant
acceleration. How he can verify the
dimensional consistency.
Contd…
 Good practice to make units similar
 Good practice to show all units
througout a problem to test equation
validity.
 Identify..
Conversion of Units

Often necessary to change units in order to

combine measurements made with
different instruments
Conversion of Units
 procedure is very simple
 if the units are again handled as algebraic quantities.
 The equivalence between two expressions of the same
quantity may be defined in terms of a ratio:
 Ratios of the form of Equations are known as
conversion factors.
 Dimension Equation
 To convert a quantity expressed in terms of one unit to
its equivalent in terms of another unit, multiply the
given quantity by the conversion factor (new unit/old
unit).
 Dimension Equation. One quantity is multiplied by a
number of ratios Called Conversion factors of equivalent
values of combinations of dimensions/units.
 The numerical value depends on the units chosen.
 meters to millimeters
 nanoseconds to seconds
 square centimeters to square meters
Conversions within units
 SI,CGS and AES system
 Difference?
 Factors for converting from one system of units to
another may be determined by
 taking ratios of quantities
 AES difficulties
 the occurrence of conversion factors (such as 1 ftl12 in), which,
unlike those in the metric systems, are not multiples of 10;
 the unit of force.
Basic Conversion Factors
 Examples
•Express a speed of 50 kilometers per hour as meters per second
•Convert a concentration of 220 mg/dl to grams/liter
•Convert 3 weeks to milliseconds
•Calculate the weight in N of a 25 kg object
•A student making artificial sea water dissolves 13.1 gm of NaCl in 450 ml
of distilled water, and calculates the resulting concentration as 0.0291
gm/ml. A standard handbook claims that seawater has 29.54 gm/l of NaCl.
Comparing units, the student recalculates the concentration as 13.1 gm/
0.45 l = 29.1 gm/l, and notes that the units are now the same and the
magnitude is sufficiently close
• Convert 1 cm/s2 to it equivalent in km/yr2.

• Convert 921 kg/m3 to lbm/ft3

• The Gas Constant R= 8.314 m3-Pa/mol K. What is the value of

R in lit-bar/mol K and cal/mol-K.?

• A force of 355 poundals is exerted on a 25.0-slug object. At

what rate (m/s2) does the object accelerate?

Force and Weight
Force
 According to Newton's second law of motion, force is
proportional to the product of mass and acceleration
(length/time2 ).
 Natural force units are, therefore, kg'm/s2 (SI), g' cm/s2
 (CGS), and Ibm 'ft/s2 (American engineering).
 To avoid having to carry around these complex units in all
calculations involving forces, derived force units have been
defined in each system.
 In the metric systems, the derived force units (the newton in
SI, the dyne in the CGS system)
 Are defined to equal the natural units:
System Conversion Units
Pound-force
 a pound-force (lbf)-is
 defined as the product of a unit mass (1 Ibm) and the
acceleration of gravity at sea level and 45° latitude,
which is 32.174 ft/s2:

 The symbol gc is sometimes used to denote the

conversion factor from natural to derived force units:
Mass
 The weight of an object is the force exerted on the
object by gravitational attraction.
 The gravitational acceleration (g) varies directly with the
mass of the attracting body and inversely with the
square of the distance between the centers of mass of
the attracting body and the object being attracted.
 The value of g at sea level and 45'" latitude is given
below in each system of units:

The acceleration of gravity does not vary much with position

on the earth's surface and (within moderate limits) altitude,