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Question about reciprocal values?
I understand that the reciprocal result of 50, for example, is 1/50, or 0.02. My question:
What if the value is 50 miles per hour, or.... 50 megahertz???
How does this affect the original numerical value?? Thanks a lot.
3 Answers
- The AnswererLv 61 decade agoFavorite Answer
y is the reciprocal of a number x such that:
xy = 1
This also means that x is the reciprocal of y.
In practical terms, you can't have a reciprocal of measurement such as miles per hour, it does not generate anything siginificant, just like the concept of 'negative volume' does not mean anything. The only measurements you may need to find the reciprocal of are things such as pressure and temperature, because they are inversely prorportionate to each other.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
As was stated, inverting units as well as the number... and that is perfectly acceptable. "Dimensional analysis", keeping track of units as well as values, is important in physics. For example, frequency may be converted to wavelength and shown as 1/Hz, rather than cm, because it might be more convenient in an equation, help make a phenomenon more clear (e.g. 1/f noise) or produce an easier-to--interpret graph.
You are absolutely correct in thinking that the units, as well as values, may be manipulated mathematically.
- 1 decade ago
You flip the units as well.
50 miles / hour
becomes
0.02 hours / mile
work with these conversion factors may seem more practical if we work with units of length where it will make more sense that you will want to go both ways:
2.54 cm / in
0.3937 in / cm
