Comparing two sides of an equation to prove both has the same base SI units?
The intensity of a sound wave passing through air is given by
#I = Kvpf^2A^2#
where #I# is the intensity ( power per unit area ),
#K# is a constant without units,
#v# is the speed of sound,
#p# is the density of air,
#f# is the frequency of the wave
and #A# is the amplitude of the wave.
Show that both sides of the equation have the same SI base units.
The intensity of a sound wave passing through air is given by
where
and
Show that both sides of the equation have the same SI base units.
1 Answer
See process below!
Explanation:
The process of verifying if your equation has the right units on the right and the left us called dimensional analysis, and is a very useful way of checking if your answers to more complex science problems make sense.
The first thing I always do in these kinds of problems is simply break down everything into standard SI units. Let's do this now:
You'll usually use liters or something of that form for most calculations, but if we're making everything SI units it's a good idea to keep it as
Lastly,
Now, let's plug all of the above into our original equation:
Now is the fun part: go in and cancel out everything that divides out!
These dimensions match up, so we are good!
In these kinds of problems the final answer is not the big deal -- it's the process of plugging in those base units and seeing how they cancel out. Make sure you master this -- it will come in handy across science disciplines.
Hope that helped :)