In the diagram below the relationship between "kinds" of quantities as discussed in VIM3 has been represented in three ways:
- as a tagged value 'kind : Quantity'
- as an illustrative <<kind>> Dependency
- as a generalization hierarchy with the "kind" quantity at the relative root of the hierarchy
See in particular the energy quantity, with a physical law that applies to all kinds of energy, and increasingly specific energy forms (kinetic, potential, and heat) with increasingly specific equations.
This demonstrates at least one reason why Dimension alone (shared by all the kinds of energy) can't serve as a Quantity or "quantity kind".
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