I don't understand your "system' and I have not followed the posts, but I have peeked in and it seems to me that you make very basic mistakes. I'm not saying he's right. I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm saying you make very basic mistakes.

Answer: 2 bananas * 2 bananas = 4 bananas^2 (4 bananas squared)

Part of the beauty of algebra is that you don't have to think about the physical interpretation of intermediate results - but you do have to follow the rules. Ideally, you should understand them, but if you don't understand them, you at least need to use them in all derivations you use. You may not like it, but you can be pretty sure that the fellows who provided you with the formulas you're using would use the formulas in the way I suggest.

In every intro to science or engineering class one ever takes, among the most basic things the teacher will harp on is this: always keep your units. This is very important.

1 meter * 1 second is 1 meter-second. 2 meters and 2 seconds is 4 meter-seconds. 1 N * 1 s = 1 Ns. That's the math that all of these formulas requires - regardless of whether the interim results make physical sense to you.

It just doesn't make sense to argue about these more complicated examples, if you can't agree on the most fundamental cases. I tutor math from pre-algebra through calculus. I always start students on the simplest case I can think of.

Last edited by TheFallibleFiend; 09/29/11 07:40 PM.