Dimensional Analysis in Stem Teaching
Alain J. Phares and John H. Durnin
Dimensional Analysis (DA) is shown to play a pivotal role in the teaching of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). This article summarizes the basic rules and corollaries of DA and addresses (1) the importance of using DA with mathematical functions; (2) how to use DA in a science/ engineering laboratory based discovery approach; and (3) the manner in which DA is used with technology for data analysis and curve fitting. These three viewpoints with regards to DA are discussed and illustrated with examples.
Keywords: Dimensional analysis, teaching, science, technology, engineering, mathematics