From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!uwvax!doug
Newsgroups: net.physics
Title: The arbitrariness of fundamental quantities
Article-I.D.: uwvax.542
Posted: Mon Aug  9 12:39:08 1982
Received: Thu Aug 12 04:48:10 1982


An important question:  Is it possible to determine the physical
nature of something by looking at its "dimensions"?  I mean, does
the fact that energy has dimensions of  (mass)(length**2/time**2)
tell us anything, or are all dimensions (not UNITS, DIMENSIONS)
arbitrary (though consistent within one unit system).

Does the speed of something have to be in dimensions of length/time?

Energy and torque have the same dimensions, yet they are two different
things physically.

What happens to the rest of our measurements, like weight, time, speed,
in those theoretical systems that physicists always use where they
set planck's constant = speed of light = 1?