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This article consists of tables outlining a number of physical quantities. The first table lists the fundamental quantities used in the International System of Units to define the physical dimension of physical quantities for dimensional analysis. The second table lists the derived physical quantities.
These include the Boltzmann constant, which gives the correspondence of the dimension temperature to the dimension of energy per degree of freedom, and the Avogadro constant, which gives the correspondence of the dimension of amount of substance with the dimension of count of entities (the latter formally regarded in the SI as being dimensionless).
For example, the dimension of a point is zero; the dimension of a line is one, as a point can move on a line in only one direction (or its opposite); the dimension of a plane is two, etc. The dimension is an intrinsic property of an object, in the sense that it is independent of the dimension of the space in which the object is or can be embedded.
The base units are defined in terms of the defining constants. For example, the kilogram is defined by taking the Planck constant h to be 6.626 070 15 × 10 −34 J⋅s, giving the expression in terms of the defining constants [1]: 131 1 kg = (299 792 458) 2 / (6.626 070 15 × 10 −34)(9 192 631 770) h Δν Cs / c 2 .
The dimension of a physical quantity is more fundamental than some scale or unit used to express the amount of that physical quantity. For example, mass is a dimension, while the kilogram is a particular reference quantity chosen to express a quantity of mass. The choice of unit is arbitrary, and its choice is often based on historical precedent.
Any ratio between physical constants of the same dimensions results in a dimensionless physical constant, for example, the proton-to-electron mass ratio. The fine-structure constant α is the best known dimensionless fundamental physical constant. It is the value of the elementary charge squared expressed in Planck units. This value has become ...
The definition of velocity above satisfies this requirement since it implies that v 1 /v 2 = (d 1 /d 2)/(t 1 /t 2); thus if the ratios of distances and times are determined, then so is the ratio of velocities. A definition of a unit of a physical quantity is a statement that determines the ratio of any instance of the quantity to the unit.
A physical quantity can be expressed as a value, which is the algebraic multiplication of a numerical value and a unit of measurement. For example, the physical quantity mass, symbol m, can be quantified as m=n kg, where n is the numerical value and kg is the unit symbol (for kilogram). Quantities that are vectors have, besides numerical value ...