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From: Thomas.Koenig@online.de (Thomas Koenig)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Dimensionality Checking (Ada 20XX)
Date: 17 Dec 2001 13:16:11 +0100
Organization: University of Karlsruhe, Germany
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Date: 2001-12-17T13:16:11+01:00
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Dmitry A. Kazakov <dmitry@elros.cbb-automation.de> wrote:

>The equation X <unitX>*X <unitX> = Y <unitY> has a solution when Y is
>not negative and <unitY> has even powers of all base units. Thus we
>could define sqrt.

In order to be sufficiently general, dimensions would have to be
factional numbers for intermediate results, at least.  There are
too many cases where square or cubed or other roots turn up in
normal calculations.

For example, one important factor in distillation column design,
the vapor load, is defined as F = w * rho^(1/2), where w is the
speed in (Length/Time) and rho is the density (Mass/Length^3),
so its unit actually is  kg^0.5/m^0.5/s in SI units.  And
yes, people do publish values and correlations for this factor.