Answer to Question #230673 in Physics for Daniyal

Question

Are dimensions the perameters which are used to find out quantitative nature of physical quantities?

Answer 1

In physics, the word dimension denotes the physical nature of a quantity. The distance between two points, for example, can be measured in centimetres, metres, or kilometres, which are different ways of expressing the dimension of length.

In physics, it’s often necessary either to derive a mathematical expression or equation or to check its correctness.

A useful procedure for doing this is called dimensional analysis, which makes use of the fact that dimensions can be treated as algebraic quantities.

Such quantities can be added or subtracted only if they have the same dimensions.

It follows that the terms on the opposite sides of an equation must have the

same dimensions.