drbitboy
Lifetime Supporting Member
OT: pedagogy and philosophy
"Keeping the units straight" is an abstract concept that presupposes the underlying knowledge, so it is less useful pedagogically; "multiplying by unity," on the other hand, contains the same concept but expressed in a way that connects directly to the knowledge to be gained, i.e. that unit conversion does not change the quantity in question. So in my experience it has a better record of converting outsiders into cognoscenti.
But yes, I agree that, in the end, multiplying by unity, keeping the units straight, bookkeeping, potayto, potahto, are all the same.
So do I, but then you and I just know this stuff.I don't think of it as multiplying by unity but keeping the units straight ...
"Keeping the units straight" is an abstract concept that presupposes the underlying knowledge, so it is less useful pedagogically; "multiplying by unity," on the other hand, contains the same concept but expressed in a way that connects directly to the knowledge to be gained, i.e. that unit conversion does not change the quantity in question. So in my experience it has a better record of converting outsiders into cognoscenti.
But yes, I agree that, in the end, multiplying by unity, keeping the units straight, bookkeeping, potayto, potahto, are all the same.
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