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In dimensional analysis, a dimensionless quantity (or more precisely, a quantity with the dimensions of 1) is a quantity without any physical units and thus a pure number. Such a number is typically defined as a product or ratio of quantities which do have units, in such a way that all units cancel.
Examples "one out of every 10 apples I gather is rotten." -- the rotten-to-gathered ratio is (1 apple) / (10 apples) = 0.1 = 10%, which is a dimensionless quantity. Another more typical example in physics and engineering is the measure of plane angles with the unit of "radian". An angle measured this way is the length of arc lying on a circle (with center being the vertex of the angle) swept out by the angle to the length of the radius of the circle. The units of the ratio is length divided by length which is dimensionless. Dimensionless quantities are widely used in the fields of mathematics, physics, and engineering but also in everyday life. Whenever one measures any physical quantity, they are measuring that physical quantity against a like dimensioned standard. Whenever one commonly measures a length with a ruler or tape measure, they are counting tick marks on the standard of length they are using, which is a dimensionless number. When they attach that dimensionless number (the number of tick marks) to the units that the standard represents, they conceptually are referring to a dimensionful quantity. A quantity Q is defined as the product of that dimensionless number n (the number of tick marks) and the unit U (the standard): But, ultimately, people always work with dimensionless numbers in reading measuring instruments and manipulating (changing or calculating with) even dimensionful quantities. In case of dimensionless quantities the unit U is a quotient of like dimensioned quantities that can be reduced to a number (kg/kg = 1, μg/g = 1e-6). Dimensionless quantities can also carry dimensionless units like % (=0.01), ppm (=1e-6), ppb (=1e-9), ppt (=1e-12). The CIPM Consultative Committee for Units toyed with the idea of defining the unit of 1 as the 'uno', but the idea was dropped. * * * * Properties Buckingham π-theorem According to the Buckingham π-theorem of dimensional analysis, the functional dependence between a certain number (e.g., n) of variables can be reduced by the number (e.g., k) of independent dimensions occurring in those variables to give a set of p = n − k independent, dimensionless quantity. For the purposes of the experimenter, different systems which share the same description by dimensionless quantity are equivalent. Example The power consumption of a stirrer with a particular geometry is a function of the density and the viscosity of the fluid to be stirred, the size of the stirrer given by its diameter, and the speed of the stirrer. Therefore, we have n = 5 variables representing our example. Those n = 5 variables are built up from k = 3 dimensions which are: According to the π-theorem, the n = 5 variables can be reduced by the k = 3 dimensions to form p = n − k = 5 − 3 = 2 independent dimensionless numbers which are in case of the stirrer List of dimensionless quantity There are infinitely many dimensionless quantities and they are often called numbers. Some of those that are used most often have been given names, as in the following list of examples (alphabetical order): Dimensionless physical constants Certain physical constants, such as the speed of light in a vacuum, are normalized to 1 if the units for time, length, mass, charge, and temperature are chosen appropriately. The resulting system of units is known as Planck units. However, a handful of dimensionless physical constants cannot be eliminated in any system of units; their values must be determined experimentally. The resulting fundamental physical constants include: See also | ||||||||
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