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mathskit

What’s in a unit?

Marks in exams are often awarded for specifying the units of a quantity. Many students are comfortable with quoting units in answers, but view it as an afterthought. This Mathskit is about learning to work with units

In the scientific world the units we use are important. In engineering they can be the difference between something working or not. NASA famously lost its $125 million Mars Climate Orbiter due to a maths error with units. An Air Canada employee forgot to convert between metric and imperial units, which caused them to under-fill by 50% and run out of fuel mid-f light (nobody was killed). Christopher Columbus used Roman miles rather than nautical miles to measure distance — he landed in the Bahamas thinking it was Asia.

Understanding the relationships between base and derived units can be very helpful, leading to a greater understanding of why things behave the way they do (either in a practical task or in a calculation). I regularly stress the importance of knowing and understanding the units with which we work. As part of this, I insist that students learn the units that accompany the formulae.

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