Dimensionless quantity

quantity with no physical dimension From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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In dimensional analysis, a dimensionless quantity (or more precisely, a quantity with the dimensions of 1) is a quantity without any physical units and thus a pure number. Such a number is typically defined as a product or ratio of quantities which do have units, in such a way that all the units cancel out.

Example

"out of every 10 apples I gather, 1 is rotten." -- the rotten-to-gathered ratio is (1 apple) / (10 apples) = 0.1 = 10%, which is a dimensionless quantity.

List of dimensionless quantities

There are infinitely many dimensionless quantities and they are often called numbers. Some of those that are used most often have been given names, as in the following list of examples (alphabetical order):

More information Name, Field of application ...
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