Re: An approach to describing the relationships between units-of-measure

From
Pete Kirkham <>
To
Date
2003-07-24T11:35:32Z
ID
<"030724103711Z.WT10348. 38*/PN=Pete.Kirkham/OU=Technical/OU=NOTES/O=BAe MAA/PRMD=BAE/ADMD=GOLD 400/C=GB/"@MHS>
Thread
Re: An approach to describing the relationships between units-of-measure
'@INTERNET@wtgw'(John Cowan)
| > Question: what is the canonical form of compound UOMs, such as:
| >      - m**2        (meters squared)
| >      - m/sec        (meters per second)
| >      - m/sec**2  (meters per second squared)
| 
| Such a form can always be reduced to a fraction, with a list of numerator
| units and denominator units.  If we sort the units in alphabetical order,
| then we get a canonical form for it.  For example, the canonical
| form of volts is "kilogram meter meter / ampere second second second".
| Exactly how to represent this in XML I leave up to you.

It also might be worth looking into specifying the operator used in combining the 
list; for the torque/work example 
  torque := (cross force distance)
  work   := (dot   force distance)

which can remove that sort of ambiguity.

Pete

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