DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS IN MATHEMATICS FOR ENGINEERS

Engineering professionals apply mathematics in the analysis, design, and development of various systems and processes. Common current mathematics preparation for engineering studies consists of several courses that concentrate on a number of important skills mostly related to computational methods and treatment of numerical values. Yet, most of the quantities modeled as variables in mathematical equations represent quantities that attach a physical unit to a scalar. While numerical techniques are important to the computational process, adequate treatment of units within those computations is equally important. However, very little time is spent considering the effect of various commonly used mathematical processes on the physical units associated with variables involved in those computations. This work discusses the integration of physical-units-treatment, dimensional analysis, in engineering preparation courses as part of a newly developed mathematics for engineers course to serve students enrolled in a newly developed electrical and computer engineering degree program