From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,cc4f25d878383cc X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-12-14 14:14:39 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!sn-xit-02!supernews.com!newsfeed.direct.ca!look.ca!upp1.onvoy!onvoy.com!news-out.visi.com!hermes.visi.com!newspump.sol.net!wn1feed!worldnet.att.net!204.127.198.204!attbi_feed4!attbi.com!rwcrnsc51.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "Mark Lundquist" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada References: <9v37ru$cdmva$2@ID-25716.news.dfncis.de> <9v4fkq$2bl$1@mvmap66.ciw.uni-karlsruhe.de> <9v5gjl$d9cth$1@ID-25716.news.dfncis.de> <9v5pmr$ftq$1@mvmap66.ciw.uni-karlsruhe.de> <2ZxR7.35081$ER5.394136@rwcrnsc52> Subject: Re: Dimensionality Checking (Ada 20XX) X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4133.2400 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4133.2400 Message-ID: Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 22:14:38 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 204.127.202.211 X-Complaints-To: abuse@attbi.com X-Trace: rwcrnsc51 1008368078 204.127.202.211 (Fri, 14 Dec 2001 22:14:38 GMT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 22:14:38 GMT Organization: AT&T Broadband Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:17933 Date: 2001-12-14T22:14:38+00:00 List-Id: "Stephen Leake" wrote in message news:ulmg8jz7r.fsf@gsfc.nasa.gov... Stephe, thanks to you and also to Wilhelm Spickermann for jogging my memory. Yes, of course... there always has to be an arbitrary reference point, to correspond with a quantity of zero in the logarithmic unit (log(1) = 0; 1 what?) > > Actually, Decibels are the log of a _ratio_ of sound pressure levels: > > Db = 10 log P/P_0 > > where P_0 is a reference sound pressure. I don't have my physics book > handy (it's at home so my daughter can use it; wow!), so I don't > remember what the standard reference is. > > > The astronomical magnitude scale is logarithmic with respect to > > brightness. > > Again, log of a ratio, relative to some standard brightness. > > > pH is the negative log of the moles/L of H+. > > Hmm, that sounds right, but my chemistry book is at home also. i.e. log of concentration, which is also a ratio (molarity in a given solvent can also be expressed in w/w, ppm or whatever, which makes it more obvious) I get it now :-)... Unit-safety/conversions would still have to support logarithmic units, but it would define Log only for "dimensionless" in the sense we've been using it (the sense that Nick, et al, finally got me to understand). Cheers, Mark