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  • To: "'John Cowan'" <cowan@m...>
  • Subject: RE: What are units-of-measure? e.g., what's a "kilometer"?
  • From: "Black, Neville" <Neville_Black@c...>
  • Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2003 09:39:40 -0400
  • Cc: xml-dev@l...

John Cowan writes:

>Note that dimensional consistency is not enough for physical consistency:
>force and torque both have units of kg m / sec^2, but an equation that
>purports to equate a force with a torque has no physical meaning.


Uh, no.

SI unit of Force: newton
           Torque: newton meter

The dimensions of torque are also the dimensions of work  (force x distance)

The difference in physics is the orientation: work is the product
of the component of the vector force parallel to the displacement

torque involves the force perpendicular to the displacement vector 
(relative to some origin)

neville_black ( at ) cable.comcast.com

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