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Importance of Units

Units are important in physics for two main reasons: (1) They help avoid mistakes when performing calculations by keeping quantities in the same units. (2) They serve as a check on calculations once completed to ensure the units make physical sense. Ignoring units can lead to incorrect results, like finding a speed in s/m instead of the correct m/s. Proper use of units is also important when graphing relationships between variables to obtain physically meaningful answers.

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Muhammad Hannan Siddiqui
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80 views1 page

Importance of Units

Units are important in physics for two main reasons: (1) They help avoid mistakes when performing calculations by keeping quantities in the same units. (2) They serve as a check on calculations once completed to ensure the units make physical sense. Ignoring units can lead to incorrect results, like finding a speed in s/m instead of the correct m/s. Proper use of units is also important when graphing relationships between variables to obtain physically meaningful answers.

Uploaded by

Muhammad Hannan Siddiqui
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Importance of Units

Units are incredibly important to physics. Two of the most important reasons are the following: (1) they help us
to avoid making mistakes in computation, and (2) they serve as a check on computations once they are completed.
In the first case, you can avoid adding 3m and 25cm and coming up with the wrong answer. If one merely adds
3 and 25, one gets 28. But answer this question, “28 what?” One cannot add apples and oranges – so to speak – and
get a meaningful answer. Before adding, units should be in common to the two terms. To add 3m to 25cm, convert
both to either meters or centimeter and then add:

3m + 25cm = 300cm + 25cm = 325cm OR 3m + 25cm = 3m + 0.25m = 3.25cm

Note that 325cm and 3.25m (both the same distance) don’t look anything like 28 “something”.
In the second case, one might be looking for a speed expressed in m/s. Speed can be found using the equation,
Δx = vt . What if someone solves the equation incorrectly and gets the following where t = 3.5s and Δx is 62.5m?

t 3.50s s
v= = = 0.0560
Δx 62.5m m
Clearly speed is not measured in s/m; rather, it is commonly measured in m/s. On a multiple-choice test in a
question asking for speed in m/s, the correct answer would be 17.9. Having found 0.0560 with the use of a
calculator (and ignoring units), the student might be lured into a trap of selecting the wrong answer if 0.0560 is
among them.
Consider, too, the importance of units in graphing as in the
example here. Let’s say that students use the regression formula
shown on the graph to write the relationship between variables as
follows:

N = T + 25

The equation states, in effect, that the cell number, N, equals the
temperature, T, plus 25. This makes no sense. If a temperature of
34°C is input into the formula, one gets

N = 34°C + 25

How does one add 34°C to 25, a pure number? It’s like adding
apples and oranges in the above example. And what happens if
someone enters the temperature, T, in °F or K (Kelvins) instead of
°C? An entirely incorrect answer will result!
Properly written with units, the relationship between the variables shown in the above graph is as follows:

N = (1 cells / o C) ∗ T + 25 cells

And solving the formula for T = 34°C, one gets the following correct answer:

N = (1 cells / o C) *34 o C + 25 cells


34 o C *cells
N= o
+ 25 cells
C
N = 34 cells + 25 cells
N = 59 cells

Avoid doing numerical calculations using a calculator and then slapping units on at the end without having
worked them out. This will serve as a check on your work.
Lastly, treat units like any other number. They multiple and divide just like numbers. When adding or
subtracting, be certain that the units are the same so you can avoid mixing apples with oranges so to speak.

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