Essential Ideas

Welcome to dimensional analysis! Dimensional analysis will become an important skill to have in your STEM class. Dimensional analysis is a way to communicate the same number in different units without actually changing the value of the number.

Chart of SI Prefixes

Greek Alphabet

Some of the SI prefixes have Greek alphabet letters as their symbol. Greek letters are also used alongside Latin letters throughout chemistry and physics.

Dimensional Analysis Video by Melissa Maribel (~2 minutes)

Tips for Dimensional Analysis

• Steps to consider:

  • Write down your starting value and conversion factors.

  • Write either the fraction or the fence method.

    • • • Tip: find one method and stick with it! Sometimes professors will use a different method than you, but they are ultimately communicating the same concept. Understand the method they are using, but be consistent with yourself.

• Make sure for every undesired unit in the numerator, you write the conversion factor so that the undesired unit cancels out with the same unit on the denominator.

Math Resources 

Below are some potentially useful math resources for this chapter. Click on the names of the sections to view the resources.

Order of Operations

Exponents

Solving Equations

Calculators