There ... we now know why WBahn is the way he is with units. He had a significant emotional event that impressed on him the reason to use units. I'm glad WBahn told the story. Keep up the good work WBahn.

I've actually shared it several times over the years, in both greater and lesser detail.

 

I've actually shared it several times over the years, in both greater and lesser detail.

+1 Back when I was a pup I presented a PID issue to one of our senior physicists for some help. He looked at my unit-less math and saw my problem in seconds. To explain my error, all he had to do was fill in the units and even I could instantly see that x <> x^2 or something like that. He then went through my whole process, adding units and scratching out the actual numbers. When done, he told me to tell him about the process.. numbers became things like degreesC rise per second and the process read itself. I wish I could say that it was a trans-formative moment and that I became a math genius but I'm still a little dyslexic and kind of sloppy but when it comes right down to it, I always frame the problem in units first, then numbers.

I emphasized the units first approach to my kids when helping them with their homework. Both of them are seriously good in advanced math.

On board with the units approach. Just my .02 * USdollar.