doug (08/09/82)
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?