Re: c = inverse(sqrt(epsilon nought *mu nought))

John Harper wrote:
(snip)

I have another problem with Wade's terminology. c is a velocity, which happens to be a rational (for that matter an integer) number of metres per second, which Paul gave. c is NOT a rational number. Rational
numbers are dimensionless. Remember the spacecraft that crashed on Mars because someone was careless with units...

I would agree with you, except that this is the Fortran newsgroup
where variables do not have units. The quantity stored in the
variable is the desired quantity divided by the appropriate units.

It seems to me that physicists and related scientists tend to
consider variables as holding a quantity with units, while
engineers tend to consider the units as part of the equation.

For the latter case, you might see in a book:

F(Newtons) = m (kilograms) * a (meters/second**2).

-- glen

.

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