Today in my Physics lecture I suddenly thought of something. We all know that gravitational force is proportional to the two masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. So, naturally, there exists a system of natural units which equates the proportionality by setting $G=1$. Here I'm referring to Planck Units. But I realized that even though numerically using this system of units $F=\frac{m_1m_2}{r^2}$, dimension-wise that is wrong because the units do not correspond to the unit of force as defined by Newton's Second Law. Similarly, the electrostatic force, when making $k=1$, has the wrong unit as well. Why do we have to throw in those proportionality constants to convert the units? Shouldn't the units work out to be the same?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
-
I have an hydrogenic atom, knowing that its ground-state wavefunction has the standard form $$ \psi = A e^{-\beta r} $$ with $A = \frac{\bet...
-
I stand up and I look at two parallel railroad tracks. I find that converge away from me. Why? Can someone explain me why parallel lines s...
-
At room temperature, play-dough is solid(ish). But if you make a thin strip it cannot just stand up on it's own, so is it still solid? O...
-
Sorry if this question is a bit broad but I can't find any info on this by just searching. The equation q = neAL where L is the length o...
-
This image from NASA illustrates drag coefficients for several shapes: It is generally accepted that some variation of the teardrop/airfoil...
-
Sometimes I am born in silence, Other times, no. I am unseen, But I make my presence known. In time, I fade without a trace. I harm no one, ...
-
I want to know what happens to the space a black hole crosses over as our galaxy travels through space.
No comments:
Post a Comment