// Copyright ©2013 The gonum Authors. All rights reserved. // Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style // license that can be found in the LICENSE file. // Package unit provides a set of types and constants that facilitate // the use of the International System of Units (SI). // // Unit provides two main functionalities. // // 1) // It provides a number of types representing either an SI base unit // or a common combination of base units, named for the unit it // represents (Length, Mass, Pressure, etc.). Each type has // a float64 as the underlying unit, and its value represents the // number of that underlying unit (Kilogram, Meter, Pascal, etc.). // For example, // height := 1.6 * unit.Meter // acc := unit.Acceleration(9.8) // creates a variable named 'height' with a value of 1.6 meters, and // a variable named 'acc' with a value of 9.8 meters per second squared. // These types can be used to add compile-time safety to code. For // example, // func UnitDensity(t unit.Temperature, pressure unit.Pressure) (unit.Density){ // ... // } // func main(){ // t := 300 * unit.Kelvin // p := 5 * unit.Bar // rho := UnitDensity(p, t) // gives compile-time error // } // gives a compile-time error (temperature type does not match pressure type) // while the corresponding code using float64 runs without error. // func Float64Density(temperature, pressure float64) (float64){ // ... // } // func main(){ // t := 300.0 // degrees kelvin // p := 50000.0 // Pascals // rho := Float64Density(p, t) // no error // } // Many types have constants defined representing named SI units (Meter, // Kilogram, etc. ) or SI derived units (Bar, Milligram, etc.). These are // all defined as multiples of the base unit, so, for example, the following // are euqivalent // l := 0.001 * unit.Meter // k := 1 * unit.Millimeter // j := unit.Length(0.001) // // 2) // Unit provides the type "Unit", meant to represent a general dimensional // value. unit.Unit can be used to help prevent errors of dimensionality // when multiplying or dividing dimensional numbers. This package also // provides the "Uniter" interface which is satisfied by any type which can // be converted to a unit. New varibles of type Unit can be created with // the New function and the Dimensions map. For example, the code // acc := New(9.81, Dimensions{LengthDim:1, TimeDim: -2}) // creates a variable "acc" which has a value of 9.81 m/s^2. Methods of // unit can be used to modify this value, for example: // acc.Mul(1.0 * unit.Kilogram).Mul(1 * unit.Meter) // To convert the unit back into a typed float64 value, the From methods // of the dimensional types should be used. From will return an error if the // dimensions do not match. // var energy unit.Energy // err := (*energy).From(acc) // Domain-specific problems may need custom dimensions, and for this purpose // NewDimension should be used to help avoid accidental overlap between // packages. For example, results from a blood test may be measured in // "White blood cells per slide". In this case, NewDimension should be // used to create a 'WhiteBloodCell' dimension. NewDimension takes in a // string which will be used for printing that dimension, and will return // a unique dimension number. NewDimension should not be // used, however, to create the unit of 'Slide', because in this case slide // is just a measurement of area. Instead, a constant could be defined. // const Slide unit.Area = 0.001875 // m^2 // var WhiteBloodCellDim unit.Dimension // func init(){ // WhiteBloodCellDim = unit.NewDimension("wbc") // } // type WbcPerArea float64 // func (w WbcPerArea) Unit() *Unit{ // return unit.New(float64(w), unit.Dimensions{WhiteBloodCellDim: 1, unit.LengthDim: -2}) // } // func main(){ // v := WbcPerArea(15) // fmt.Println(v.Unit()) // prints: 1.5e+01 m^-2 wbc // } // Please note that Unit cannot catch all errors related to dimensionality. // Different physical ideas are sometimes expressed with the same dimensions // and Unit is incapable of catching these mismatches. For example, energy and // torque are both expressed as force times distance (Newton-meters in SI), // but it is wrong to say that a torque of 10 N-m is the same as 10 J, even // though the dimensions agree. package unit // import "gonum.org/v1/gonum/unit"