We keep on harping on the use of dimensional analysis to check up if your equations are set up correctly; the units will be consistent on both sides of the equal sign. You can make a mistake in your calculations and still come up with the correct units, but if you don't come up with the correct units your equation isn't even set up correctly. It HAS to be wrong.
Here is a simple example, in fact, the simplest possible example.
Suppose you have a floor of a square room that is 10 meters on a side, that is, each side of the room is 10 m. The meter is the unit of length.
The area of the room is 10m*10m, or 10*10*m*m or 100*m^2 or
Area = 100 m^2.
You will note that the Area is in units of square meters, and that this is now the units on the right hand side of the calculation as well. When you multiply a length by another length you get an area, and the units of area ARE NOT THE SAME as the units of length. A meter is not the same as a square meter.
A velocity v is understood to be a unit of length divided by a unit of time, or m/s
So when you multiply a velocity by another velocity it comes out in units of v^2, or (m/s)(m/s) or (m/s)^2 or (m^2)/(s^2). Well, you know what a square meter is, its a unit of area. But what the hell is a square second? And what can you possibly mean by dividing an area by a square second? The answer is it doesn't mean anything. These units have no physical reality, they're just an accounting tool used to help double check your numerical calculations are arranged properly.
And one more thing. RL has it exactly right when he says; "Einstein did not just pick letters and constants at random until he got something he thought looked right." That is what you are doing.
Instead, start off with observations and experiments and they will dictate what the equations MUST become. That is just the opposite of what you are doing, which is why to people who love science and have spent a lifetime submitting to its discipline what you are doing is so infuriating.
Off Topic » in reply to I do not want to upset any one here, but I would like an answer to two more questions.
Dimensional analysis--again.
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- I do not want to upset any one here, but I would like an answer to two more questions.
