Torque not Work, Representing Kinds of Quantities

Steve McKeever

2024

Abstract

A system of units, such as the SI system, will have a number of fundamental units representing observable phenomena and a means of combining them to create compound units. In scientific and engineering disciplines, a quantity would typically be a value with an associated unit. Managing quantities in software systems is often left to the programmer, resulting in well-known failures when manipulated inappropriately. While there are a large number of tools and libraries for validating expressions denoting units of measurement, none allow the kind of quantity to be specified. In this paper we explore the problem of quantities that might share the same units of measurement but denote different kinds of quantities, such as work and torque. We develop a data type that represents compound units in a tree structure rather than as a tuple. When performing arithmetic, this structure maintains the compound definition allowing for a richer static analysis, and a complete definition of arithmetic on kinds of quantities.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

McKeever S. (2024). Torque not Work, Representing Kinds of Quantities. In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Model-Based Software and Systems Engineering - Volume 1: MODELSWARD; ISBN 978-989-758-682-8, SciTePress, pages 133-140. DOI: 10.5220/0012318900003645

in Bibtex Style

@conference{modelsward24,
author={Steve McKeever},
title={Torque not Work, Representing Kinds of Quantities},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Model-Based Software and Systems Engineering - Volume 1: MODELSWARD},
year={2024},
pages={133-140},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0012318900003645},
isbn={978-989-758-682-8},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Model-Based Software and Systems Engineering - Volume 1: MODELSWARD
TI - Torque not Work, Representing Kinds of Quantities
SN - 978-989-758-682-8
AU - McKeever S.
PY - 2024
SP - 133
EP - 140
DO - 10.5220/0012318900003645
PB - SciTePress