The purpose of this problem is to show the entire concept of dimensional consistency can be summarized but the old saying “You can’t add apples and oranges.” It you have studied power series expansions in a calculus course, you know the standard mathematical funstions such as trigonometric functions, logarithms, and exponential function can be expressed as infinite sums of the form where the an are dimensionless constants for all n = 0, 1, 2, … and x is the argument of the function. (If you have not studied power series in calculus yet, just trust us.) Use this fact to explain why the requirement that all terms in an equation have the same dimensions is sufficient as a definition of dimensional consistency. That is, it actually implies the arguments of standard mathematical funstions must be dimensional consistency. That is, it actually implies the arguments of standard mathematical functions must be dimensionless, so it is not really necessary to make this latter condition a separate requirement of the definition of dimensional consistency as we have done in this section.

For a given speed limit, would the numerical value be greater in mi/h or in km/h?

In general, when a derived unit becomes complicated (involves too many standard units), what is done?

One student uses a meterstick to measure the thickness of a textbook and obtains 4.3 cm 0.1 cm. Other students measure the thickness with vernier calipers and obtain four different measurements: (a) 4.32 cm 0.01 cm. (b) 4.31 cm 0.01 cm, (c) 4.24 cm 0.01 cm, and (d) 4.43 cm 0.01 cm. Which of these four measurements, if any, agree with that obtained by the first student?

(a) How many significant figures are in the numbers 99 and 100? (b) If the uncertainty in each number is 1, what is the percent uncertainty in each? (c) Which is a more meaningful way to express the accuracy of these two numbers, significant figures or percent uncertainties?

Carry out the arithmetic operations (a) the sum of the measured values 756, 37.2, 0.83, and 2; (b) the product 0.003 2 356.3; and (c) the product 5.620 .