- #1
1MileCrash
- 1,342
- 41
Today in chemistry, the professor made a typo that led to some entertaining results.
"Use dimensional analysis to convert 25 in2 to liters."
We were asked to convert square inches to liters. I thought jokingly "man this class is hard!"
I later informed my friend of the humorous question. He said that it wouldn't be useful, but that it could be done (??) and that any unit can be converted to any other. I agree with that, but only within the same property we are measuring..
"It's not useful like cubic inches but I'm sure it could be done."
Were his words. I expressed my lack of understanding, and said that it makes about as much sense to me as converting kelvins to feet.
He said that it wouldn't be useful, but it could be found. For example liters could be "kelvin-ohm-candela-in2/Newtons" (completely made up example) and that you could find the square inch value if needed.
Soo...
What the HECK is he talking about?
He's a very, very intelligent person but I have no idea what he's talking about. Can someone clarify?
As far as I'm concerned if I tell someone to convert 2 square inches to mL, it makes about as much sense as asking someone to convert a cow into blue radians, divided by horseshoes.
"Use dimensional analysis to convert 25 in2 to liters."
We were asked to convert square inches to liters. I thought jokingly "man this class is hard!"
I later informed my friend of the humorous question. He said that it wouldn't be useful, but that it could be done (??) and that any unit can be converted to any other. I agree with that, but only within the same property we are measuring..
"It's not useful like cubic inches but I'm sure it could be done."
Were his words. I expressed my lack of understanding, and said that it makes about as much sense to me as converting kelvins to feet.
He said that it wouldn't be useful, but it could be found. For example liters could be "kelvin-ohm-candela-in2/Newtons" (completely made up example) and that you could find the square inch value if needed.
Soo...
What the HECK is he talking about?
He's a very, very intelligent person but I have no idea what he's talking about. Can someone clarify?
As far as I'm concerned if I tell someone to convert 2 square inches to mL, it makes about as much sense as asking someone to convert a cow into blue radians, divided by horseshoes.