Re: N/kg versus m/s^2

[Leigh Palmer <palmer@SFU.CA>]

[Oops! Please pardon that last post.]

> Now I really don't understand.  Units by there very definition cannot be
> other than scalar.  Therefore, I don't understant the difference between
>    "Newton DOT 1 meter"       and       "Newtons CROSS meters"
> It simply makes no sense.  I hope we are not about to embark upon the
> slippery ground that engineers tread where they distinguish between
>    (meters)(newtons)       and        (newtons)(meters)
> the former being units of torque and the latter being units or
> work/energy.

I think Zach Wolff had a point there, though of course his units are
highly unconventional. Torque is a pseudovector quantity (or else a
bivector quantity) and energy is a scalar quantity. Certainly joules
should not be used as torque units, but no confusion should arise
if torque is completely specified, including its axial direction,
since energy is a scalar, with no direction. (The magnitude of a
torque is not *per se* a physical quantity, any more than the x-
component of a force is.)

Leigh