Writing Dimensional Units in LaTeX

17 Aug 2011

This is some useful LaTeX code to make adding SI dimensional units to quantities much easier:

\newcommand{\dimensions}[5]{\ensuremath{\
    \ifthenelse{\equal{#1}{0}}{}{\ifthenelse{\equal{#1}{1}}{\text{kg}\ }{\text{kg}^{#1}\ }}%
        \ifthenelse{\equal{#2}{0}}{}{\ifthenelse{\equal{#2}{1}}{\text{m}\ }{\text{m}^{#2}\ }}%
            \ifthenelse{\equal{#3}{0}}{}{\ifthenelse{\equal{#3}{1}}{\text{s}\ }{\text{s}^{#3}\ }}%
                \ifthenelse{\equal{#4}{0}}{}{\ifthenelse{\equal{#4}{1}}{\text{K}\ }{\text{K}^{#4}\ }}%
                    \ifthenelse{\equal{#5}{0}}{\!}{\ifthenelse{\equal{#5}{1}}{\text{kmol}}{\text{kmol}^{#5}}}}}

You can then define shortcuts to make things even easier:

\newcommand{\dimT}{\dimensions{0}{0}{0}{1}{0}}
\newcommand{\dimWatt}{\dimensions{1}{2}{-3}{0}{0}}
\newcommand{\dimJoule}{\dimensions{1}{2}{-2}{0}{0}}
\newcommand{\dimPascal}{\dimensions{1}{-1}{-2}{0}{0}}

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