Thinking Like an Engineer

Stephan, Bowman, Park, Sill, Ohland

Copyright 2013 Pearson Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Metric System & Other Units

Thinking Like an Engineer 2e

Dimensions & Base Units

Dimensions versus Units

Dimension:
Unit:

measurable property
specific value used to count an amount of measurable property

For example:
Dimension Units

Length meters fathom

inches miles

feet yard
Dimensions & Base Units

Thinking Like an Engineer 2e

SI Units
Metric system or MKS system
Meter Kilogram Second

Seven fundamental dimensions Seven base units Dimension

All others derived
Electric current
Light intensity

SI Unit

I
i N M L T

ampere
candela mole kelvin kilogram meter second

A
cd mol K kg m s

SI system
Based on power of 10 Uses named prefixes

Amount Temperature Mass Length Time

Notation Rules
Thinking Like an Engineer 2e

Dimensions & Base Units

Systems of Units
MKS system (SI Units)

Meter Kilogram Second Feet Pound-mass Second

AES (American Engineering System)

USCS (United States Customary Units)

"English" units Feet Slug Second
Dimension Length Mass Time Relative Temperature Absolute Temperature
Thinking Like an Engineer 2e

SI (MKS) meter [m] kilogram [kg] second [s] Celsius [C] kelvin [K]

AES (American) foot [ft] pound-mass [lbm] second [s] Fahrenheit [F] Rankine [R]

USCS (English) foot [ft] slug second [s] Fahrenheit [F] Rankine [R]
Dimensions & Base Units

Accepted Non-SI Units

Some units are accepted for common use with SI units:
ngstrom electron volt hour liter minute year

astronomical unit
atomic mass unit (or dalton) bar day degree

Thinking Like an Engineer 2e

Dimensions & Base Units

What is expected of you

Identify a quantity as a dimension or a unit
List the seven fundamental dimensions and their abbreviation List the seven base SI units, their abbreviations, and the matching fundamental dimensions Express units correctly using the official SI rules Express quantities using correct SI prefixes

Thinking Like an Engineer 2e

Dimensions & Base Units