3 ms·
Physicists are quite fond of redefining units so that the constants they care about are all just 1. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_units https://en.wik
by heisenzombie 6y ago
Physicists are quite fond of redefining units so that the constants they care about are all just 1. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_units https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_units).
For example, you could define mars units where the gravitational acceleration on mars is 1. Now your velocity in freefall is just equal to the time you've been freefalling! You don't even have to do a calculation!
(note: Don't actually do this. Gravitational acceleration isn't a constant when you're doing orbital mechanics.)
- mulmen 6y agoHonestly I would expect something like that to be happening at a hardware level. The number of bits in a memory address for the ground sensing radar is very interesting. Or the algorithm to determine vehicle acceleration given the voltage reading of a solid-state sensor vs the baseline. The metric system vs the imperial system is not an interesting distinction in these contexts.
- MereInterest 6y agoThe main convenience of it is when deriving formulas, rather than when applying them. With all the constants set to 1, they don't need to be tracked throughout the formula, and can be put back in at the very end by looking at the units. Sprinkle the appropriate (hbar*c) or (mu0*epsilon0) at the end, and then you get your constants back.