Scientific Specific Units

[luisphysics]

(12-06-2015 05:08 PM)Dirk. Wrote:  Should a calculator support this? I personally don't think so. This will create a lot of confusion among not so experienced users, whereas physicists should be able to convert and do the calculations correctly.

Dirk.

If they are confused over some unit existing on their calculator, then it is because they haven't been exposed to it.

When I was learning units conversions I was usually alone with my calculator. I was able to check to make sure I was doing things correctly. That built confidence and trust in my abilities, that allowed me to move on and learn the next thing(make note that not everyone learns in the same way). Hence my calculator became a learning tool.

Humans are not perfect we make mistakes, we are lazy and we hate repeating ourselves. Why do you think the computer was invented?
I'm not saying you shouldn't know how unit conversions work. The principle behind conversions are super simple. But when you have a long calculation it is easy to make a mistake.

Real world Examples.
Geant4 a physics simulation software has built in units, reason, get rid of mistakes.

Interesting fact, there is a push from the physics community to get a units library into the C++ ISO standard(an International Treaty).

If making units available in computation wasn't important, then no one would want to develop a standard.

Think back to the mistake that happened on Mars when they object that was meant to orbit mars crashed on the surface. Why? Because of unit conversions. Here is the clip. Time index 11:45 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P536lci5po
You can watch the whole thing, and rewind a bit to see when he introduces himself.

So the lesson here is, just because you are a scientist, it doesn't mean you are going to catch all the mistakes. Because you should be able to do things right, it doesn't mean you will.