Calculations: how to help your students

Each year, faced with a group of new first-year undergraduate students in our measurements lab, we ask this question: If you were stopped by someone outside on Oxford Road (at the University of Manchester) and they asked the distance to Fallowfield, what would you reply?

A typical response might be two miles. But what would the enquirer’s reaction be if you were simply to reply ‘two’? 

Everybody uses commonplace units, like miles, without a moment’s thought – we need our students to do the same with joules, pascals and watts.

In all scientific formulas unit balance is every bit as vital as numerical balance. Jonathan Agger and Kristy Turner show you how to clear up confusion with units.