Dimensionless Quantity
A Dimensionless Quantity is a quantity composed of dimensionless values that ...
- AKA: Unitless.
- See: Ordinal Quantity, Engineering Strain, Dimensional Analysis, Euler's Number, Golden Ratio, Length.
References
2016
- (Wikipedia, 2016) ⇒ http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimensionless_quantity Retrieved:2016-2-7.
- In dimensional analysis, a dimensionless quantity is a quantity to which no physical dimension is applicable. It is thus a bare number, and is therefore also known as a quantity of dimension one. Dimensionless quantities are widely used in many fields, such as mathematics, physics, engineering, and economics. Numerous well-known quantities, such as pi, Euler's number, and Golden ratio, are dimensionless. By contrast, examples of quantities with dimensions are length, time, and speed, which are measured in dimensional units, such as meter, second and meter/second.
Dimensionless quantities are often obtained as products or ratios of quantities that are not dimensionless, but whose dimensions cancel in the mathematical operation. This is the case, for instance, with the engineering strain, a measure of deformation. It is defined as change in length, divided by initial length, but because these quantities both have dimensions L (length), the result is a dimensionless quantity.
- In dimensional analysis, a dimensionless quantity is a quantity to which no physical dimension is applicable. It is thus a bare number, and is therefore also known as a quantity of dimension one. Dimensionless quantities are widely used in many fields, such as mathematics, physics, engineering, and economics. Numerous well-known quantities, such as pi, Euler's number, and Golden ratio, are dimensionless. By contrast, examples of quantities with dimensions are length, time, and speed, which are measured in dimensional units, such as meter, second and meter/second.