The Place of ‘Force’ in Several Graphic Representations of the International System of Units (SI)

• Main Authors: Dan Mihai Stefanescu, Aurel Millea
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: IFSA Publishing, S.L. 2011-08-01
• Series: Sensors & Transducers
• Subjects: International System of Units; Force
• Online Access: http://www.sensorsportal.com/HTML/DIGEST/august_2011/P_834.pdf

The International System of Units (SI) is the most widespread system of measurement units and presently it is the official one in almost all countries of the world. Its detailed presentation may be found for example in [1] where all names, symbols, definitions and inter-relations of the base and derived units are given. Other international norms and documents are devoted to various recommendations and rules for using, writing, expressing and converting the SI units, especially in scientific texts and also in trade and commercial documents. To a lesser extent are known and used the graphical representations of the International System of Units. Three variants might be considered as most eloquent, and at the same time scientifically correct and explicite. They could be called (a) "tree", (b) "planetary system" and, respectively, (c) “subway map” representation, in accordance with their specific shape. The purpose of this letter is to describe the three graphic representations and to highlight the place of the quantity "force" and its measurement unit, the "Newton", in these representations.