Foreword the book by V.

Ochkov Units in Mathcad and

Maple
One good example of Error by using units in calculation: Gimli Glider
I tell you a funny story as an epigraph:
Dialogue during an exa!
Teacher: What does a horsepower mean?
Student: It is the power that a horse of one-meter growth and one
kilogram weight has.
Teacher: ut where ha!e you seen such horse?!
Student: ut you cannot look at it so simple. It keeps in Paris in Weights
and Measures Department.
"ow days nobody is wonder at the fact that not only candidates# engineers and students but also
pupils sol!e their problems on computer$ ut choice of program for these purposes astonishes$
%he &uestion: Why do a lot of people more often use 'athcad for calculation their problems$
(eply may be next: 'athcad has uni&ue possibility
)*+
$ 'athcad can operate as with simple !alues
as with physical values$ 'athcad can be named physic-mathematical program$
Work in 'athcad is the third step ,and now days it is top one- of using computer
engineering for sol!ing physic-mathematical# technical and educational problems$ %wo pre!ious
steps are work with computer codes ,for example with assembler language- and with
programming languages ,./I0# 1ascal# 0# 2O(%(." etc-$ %hese two technologies of scientific
and technical calculations ,computer codes and programming languages- played spiteful 3oke with
these calculations$ 4imensionalities of physical !alues and its units ,meters# kilograms# seconds
and other ones- were excluded$ 5andmade solution of a physical problem ,school or student ones-
as rule demanded and demands using of dimension !alues
)6+
$ .utomation of such calculations
,that is composition of programs for computer- excludes 7physics8 of a problem$ %hese programs
keep only the numerical !alues of !ariables# but corresponding them units programmer has to
I tell you a funny story as an epigraph:
*
7keep in mind8$ /o when we interpret a calculation into computer language it is necessary to
follow the strict rule 9 all physical !alues must be one system of units measure$ .part they can not
contain factors such as *:
;
# *:
<
etc$ %his strict rule caused next incon!eniences:
*$ International system /I will ne!er be uni&ue one though it is widely used$ 2or
instance# =/. uses ritish system of units ,in 'athcad this system is called =$/$
);+
- ut it is the country setting the fashion in many spaces of science and
engineering$ asing of a program on some one system of units pre!ents natural
process of global exchange ideas# getting new form in epoch of Internet
)>+
$
6$ We can image the process of creation of a program without its debugging$ %he
main tool of debugging is output intermediate results$ /o analy?ed these results
we@ll be able to locali?e and remo!e a mistake if it was made when we selected
formulas andAor when we wrote the program$ %herefore it is important to output
the physical !alue in necessary units of necessary system of measure with
necessary factors ,*:
<
# *:
;
$etc 9 see the table??? in the third part of the book-$
%aking into account all ad!antages of the system /I but it was took root as a 7set
of presents8$ %he part of units ,kilograms# meters# seconds- used and use without
any problems# the other partBCDEFGHEIJFBCG B BCDEFGHKLMCN OPH QJQBR-FBOE
HJMSKTUPUBV# TSKWBP XP ,7loading8- did not settle down as dominating ,main-
units$ 2or instance# in heat-and-power engineering
)Y+
# pressure of a steam in a
boiler is measured and expressed in atmosphere
)<+
# but pressure in a capacitor is
measured in millimeters of mercury$ 7'ain8 unit of pressure ,pascal is "ewton
by s&uare meter- turned out !ery incon!enient$ It is difficult to remember any
scientific and technical space where pascal is applied without scale factors
)Z+
,bars# kilo-pascal# mega-pascal etc$ %he point is that# that as rule 7settled down8
unit connects with 7life8,with specific physical phenomenon-$ .tmosphere as it
follows from name is pressure of air on sea le!el ,approximate pressure 9 see
I tell you a funny story as an epigraph:
6
picture *$6: and picture *$;:-$ ut# millimeters of mercury remember us about
experiment by %orricellian ,7%orricellian !acuum8 ,torr- is millimeter of
mercury in 'athcad-$ In heat-and-power engineering exclusion 7off-system
units8 ,atmospheres and millimeters of mercury-# the change to pascal is not
con!enient$ ut we can get serious breakdown in a work$ It connects# for
example# with an operator who controls a power-generating unit
)[+
$ 5e will not
correctly interpret display of manometers$ .s since manometers are calibrated in
7correct8 units$
;$ In programs we ha!e to put in some formulas that are deri!ed basing both on
theoretical analysis of a problem and getting after static treatment of
experimental data$ .s rule coefficients of such formulas ,for instance# see
picture$ *$6[- are rigidly connected with fixed system of measure$ %hese
coefficients demand con!ersion for using in the programs$ It can bring in
additional error hence it will be cause of mistakes$
/ome words about the design of the book$
When this book will be published at the same time its Internet-!ersion will appear ,see
http:AAtwt$mpei$ac$ruAochko!AunitAindex$htm-$ ecause of Internet !ersion the design of the book is
special$ 2or instance# hyper-links are displayed: see picture$ *$;# see below# see footnote ; etc$
Working with the book if a reader meets hyper-link he will ha!e to go to necessary page himself$
In Internet-!ersion the reader can go to new place and come back easier ,with help of help-link- 9
he has to click his mouse by hyper-link$ In Internet-!ersion author will make alterations and
addition$ .uthor hope that readers will send them to address ochko!\twt$mpei$ac$ru$
Exclusion of units of physical !alues from the calculations has told on the work in
'athcad$ 'any inexperienced users begin to form the document in 'athcad-this way
%hey write dimension of some physical !alue as a commentary but not as a factor of numerical
constant$ /o they exclude the dimension of this physical !alue from the subse&uent calculations$
2or instance# if we remember the language ./I0# abo!e mentioned example will ha!e next form
I tell you a funny story as an epigraph:
;
in it: " # $%! &e "ressure in M"a. 5ere units are written in commentary ,in note 9 &e-$
=sing this algorithm a programmer can forget that pressure is in '1a# but not in bars$ 2inally he
will get a mistake$
'echanism of the work in 'athcad with units of physical !alues allows:
to put in basic data in necessary system of measure# in necessary units with
necessary factors ,kilo# milli etc-]
to put in a control of dimensions in formulas# that we use in our calculation ,for
instance# we can not sum kilograms and meters-
)^+
]
to put out calculated !alues in necessary system and units# to use con!enient scale
of the axes of plots etc$
One of the ways to sol!e this problem is a failure of dimensional !alues$ We can go to non-
dimensional numbers that keep &uantitati!e assessment of physical phenomenon: (e
)*:+
# "u# etc
,see the table ??? in the third part of the book-$ When we say that the pressure in a boil e&uals Y:
atmospheres then we operate with non-dimensional !alue$ We mean that the pressure Y: times as
much of atmospheric one$ .nd more radical way is from numerical characters we go to &ualitati!e
assessments$ We can say that pressure e&uals some number of atmospheres# but we can also say
that pressure is normal (high, low et! and form a computer-based system of control of a power-
generating unit$ _inguistic ,expert- 3udgments and the theory o" areless ranges will guide this
computer-based system
[11]
.
'athcad completely support mathematics of work with dimension !ariables$ We@ll speak about it
below and look through some simple examples$
)*+
%his uni&ueness is not absolute one$ With dimensional !alues ` .nother popular mathematics
program 4eri!e can work with units$
)6+
When the author tell about it he has remembered one seminar of transmission$ %hey had to do
some calculations using difficult 7dimensional8 formulas ,see# for instance# picture$ 6$*[-$ .t that time
only one tool of automation of such calculation was a slide-rule$ %he process of calculation consists of
three stages: the slide-rule ga!e out mantissa of a reply# but degree and dimensional of this reply they had
to do yoursel!es$ /tudents had to do it without some digital computer or analog-computing de!ice$ ecause
I tell you a funny story as an epigraph:
>
of it seminars of transmission turned into lessons a of technology of calculation and metrology$ /o there
was almost no time to discuss 7physics8 of the problem$ /oon electronic calculators and computers
appeared$ %hese computers ga!e out a reply that containing degree of a number$ ut the units as usual were
7o!erboard8 of the process of automation of calculations$
);+
%his abbre!iation we@ll use for designation of ritish system of units$
)>+
2or instance# from 'athcad we can go to Internet-forum that is called 0ollaboratory$ 5ere you
can find both &uestions and replies and 'athcad-documents with solution of some problems touching on
different spaces of science and engineering$ %he address of the forum is
http:AAcollab$mathsoft$comAbmathcad6:::$
)Y+
.uthor is lecture of 'oscow 1ower Engineering Institute$
)<+
2or instance# this fact was fixed in marking of water steam turbine: c-*::-*;: ,extraction#
electric power is *:: megawatt# pressure of li!e water steam is *;: atmospheres-# d-;::-6>:
,condensation# ;:: megawatt# 6>: atmospheres-$ .part many heat electropower stations so far ha!e got old
manometers graduated in atmospheres$
)Z+
In Z:-th years some attempts during weather forecast to tell atmospheric pressure in 7correct8
hecto-pascal took place$ It was not common unit of pressure$ Its inno!ation caused numerous protests$ Of
coursee# and howe 5ypertensi!e-men could miss to take their medicine if they had not understood weather
forecast$ %hen pressure became to name both in hecto-pascal and in millimeters of mercury# but then hecto-
pascal was forgotten$
)[+
0ertainly control of power-generating unit is automated# but a man always has the right to
interfere in it work$
)^+
.ccount of a dimension often allows deri!ing formula$ 2or example# !ibration fre&uency of a
pendulum depends on only the length of the pendulum ,certainly we speak about simple pendulum- and
free fall acceleration$ 2rom these conditions it is easy to deri!e the formula$
)*:+
0haracter of the flow of water in a duct ,turbulence# laminarity- can be estimated by three
different parameters: speed# diameter# and ductility$ ut we can do it also by one non-dimensionals
parameter 9 by number (e$
)**+
"otion 7normal8 pressure is some range of !alues$ 0oncrete !alue of pressure belongs to this
range with certain power of plausibility$ It is described corresponding "untion o" aessory ,see the article
of the author 7'athcad and the theory of careless ranges8 9 see http:AAtwt$mpei$ac$ruAochko!A2fsets$htm-$
I tell you a funny story as an epigraph:
Y