Skip to content

Coding of quantities

Quantities are coded with one byte indicating the quantity type, and one byte indicating the display unit. The SI unit or BASE unit always has display type 0. The units for each quantity type are provided on the following page. The quantities currently defined are:

code quantity description default (SI) unit Unit types
0 Dimensionless Unit without a dimension Units
1 Acceleration Acceleration m/s2 Units
2 SolidAngle Solid angle (steradian) sr Units
3 Angle Angle (relative) rad Units
4 Direction Angle (absolute) rad Units
5 Area Area m2 Units
6 Density Density based on mass and length kg/m3 Units
7 ElectricCharge Electric charge (Coulomb) s.A Units
8 ElectricCurrent Electric current (Ampere) A Units
9 ElectricPotential Electric potential (Volt) kg.m2/s3.A Units
10 ElectricalResistance Electrical resistance (Ohm) kg.m2/s3.A2 Units
11 Energy Energy (Joule) kg.m2/s2 Units
12 FlowMass Mass flow rate kg/s Units
13 FlowVolume Volume flow rate m3/s Units
14 Force Force (Newton) kg.m/s2 Units
15 Frequency Frequency (Hz) 1/s Units
16 Length Length (relative) m Units
17 Position Length (absolute) m Units
18 LinearDensity Linear density kg/m Units
19 Mass Mass kg Units
20 Power Power (Watt) kg.m2/s3 Units
21 Pressure Pressure (Pascal) kg/m.s2 Units
22 Speed Speed m/s Units
23 TemperatureDifference Temperature difference (relative) K Units
24 Temperature Temperature (absolute) K Units
25 Duration Time (relative) s Units
26 Time Time (absolute) s Units
27 Torque Torque (Newton-meter) kg.m2/s2 Units
28 Volume Volume m3 Units
29 Absorbed dose Absorbed dose (gray) m2/s2 Units
30 Amount of substance Amount of substance (mole) mol Units
31 Catalytic activity Catalytic activity (mole/s) mol/s Units
32 Electrical capacitance Electrical capacitance (farad) s4.A2/kg.m2 Units
33 Electrical conductance Electrical conductance (siemens) s3.A2/kg.m2 Units
34 Electrical inductance Electrical inductance (henry) kg.m2/s2.A2 Units
35 Equivalent dose Equivalent dose (sievert) m2/s2 Units
36 Illuminance Illuminance (lux) sr.cd/m2 Units
37 Luminous flux Luminous flux (lumen) sr.cd Units
38 Luminous intensity Luminous intensity (candela) cd Units
39 Magnetic flux density Magnetic flux density (tesla) kg/s2.A Units
40 Magnetic flux Magnetic flux (weber) kg.m2/s2.A Units
41 Radioactivity Radioactivity (becquerel) 1/s Units
42 Angular acceleration Change in angular velocity per second rad/s2 Units
43 Angular velocity Change in angular velocity per second rad/s Units
44 Momentum Linear momentum, translational momentum kg.m/s Units
45 LinearObjectDensity Number of objects per length /m Units
46 ArealObjectDensity Number of objects per area /m2 Units
47 VolumetricObjectDensity Number of objects per volume /m3 Units

Some of the quantity types have a relative and an absolute variant. Relative quantities can be added to or subtracted from relative and absolute quantities; absolute quantities cannot be added, but can be subtracted, resulting in a relative quantity. As an example, one cannot add two times (3-1-2017, 5 o'clock + 3-1-2017, 3 o'clock = ??), but these values can be subtracted (3-1-2017, 5 o'clock – 3-1-2017, 3 o'clock = 2 hours). Absolute plus relative yields e.g., 3-1-2017, 17:00 + 2 hours = 3-1-2017, 19:00. Relative values can of course be added/subtracted: 2 hours + 30 minutes = 2.5 hours. See https://djunits.org for more information.