Flater, D.
(2024),
Letter to the editor: Unit one is intrusive, Metrologia, [online], https://doi.org/10.1088/1681-7575/ad4bea, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=957439
(Accessed October 14, 2025)
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Letter to the editor: Unit one is intrusive
Published
Author(s)
Abstract
The SI brochure's treatment of quantities that it regards as dimensionless, with the associated unit one, requires certain physical quantities to be regarded as simply numbers. The resulting formal system erases the nature of these quantities and excludes them from important benefits that quantity calculus provides over numerical value calculations, namely, that accidental confusion of different units and different kinds of quantities is sometimes prevented. I propose a better treatment that entails removing from the SI brochure those prescriptions that conflict with common practices in the treatment of dimensionless quantities, especially the definition and use of non-SI dimensionless units that are distinguished by kind.Citation
Metrologia
Volume
61
Issue
3
Pub Type
Journals
Download Paper
Keywords
unit one, dimensionless quantity, SI
Citation
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Created May 24, 2024, Updated June 3, 2024