Introduction to Dimensional Analysis and the Theory of Natural Units,
Abstract
The report presents a somewhat abbreviated introduction to dimensional analysis for students of science or engineering. It shows how to construct a system of consistent natural units appropriate to any given physical problem or context. It also explains how the well known Pi Theorem of dimensional analysis follows from this treatment, and how the dimensionless pi's of the theorem simply represent various physical quantities of interest as expressed in such natural units. The method is illustrated by application to the case of an ideal propeller. This example shows how dimensional analysis may be used to generalize and simplify a problem, and to extract the maximum degree of useful information and insight from its solution. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1971
- Accession Number
- AD0734980
Entities
People
- T. H. Gawain
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School