Tuesday, October 05, 2010

On Units of Measure

Unit reduction is very commonly done. For instance, thermal conductivity is the heat flow per unit area divided by the temperature gradient. (W/m2)/(K/m) which reduces to W/(m K). So how come gas mileage figures aren't reduced to inverse area? Miles per gallon is a length over a volume which is an inverse area. 1 mpg is equal to almost 39,500 ft-2, so just multiply that appropriately. Anyone have the gall to start using this? (Not me! I was just thinking about on the drive in today.)

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