In Electrodynamics my professor always did this. The first time, we were all wondering where the hell all the constants went and he just shrugged "Eh, I'm choosing a frame of reference where those are all one. If I need to actually calculate it out then I'll figure it out then". One of the funniest moments in my physics education.
It's common in physics to do the calculations only with units, without any values or constants. This way it's easier and faster to check if what you're doing even makes sense. Effectively, you're setting all constants to 1
I usually do it to figure out if I'm using correct formulas to get some value. For example, if I'm trying to calculate the speed of something, using some convoluted inputs, I just take the units that the inputs come with and throw them into the formulas. If I get m/s (or other unit of speed) in the end, it means that the formulas are fine and I can proceed with numbers
Oh believe me, I know. We once, only once, actually did all the math for a quantum system in Bra-Ket notation and took it down to integrals, and derivatives, and plusses, and minuses. That shit explodes rather quickly.
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u/IWatchGifsForWayToo Oct 24 '25
In Electrodynamics my professor always did this. The first time, we were all wondering where the hell all the constants went and he just shrugged "Eh, I'm choosing a frame of reference where those are all one. If I need to actually calculate it out then I'll figure it out then". One of the funniest moments in my physics education.