In
engineering and
science,
dimensional analysis is the analysis of the relationships between different
physical quantities by identifying their
fundamental dimensions (such as
length,
mass,
time, and
electric charge) and
units of measure (such as miles vs. kilometers, or pounds vs. kilograms vs. grams) and tracking these dimensions as calculations or comparisons are performed. Converting from one dimensional unit to another is often somewhat complex. Dimensional analysis, or more specifically the
factor-label method, also known as the
unit-factor method, is a widely used technique for such conversions using the rules of
algebra.