This repository includes (1) Dimension.py, defining a Python class for performing dimensional analysis and (2) setup.py, a script to serve as an example for usage of the class, including some common physical quantities and constants.
The primary utility of the Dimension class is to perform mathematical operations on physical quantities and check whether different units have the same dimensions. "Dimension" here means the representation of a given physical quantity using only the fundamental dimensions of Mass, Length, Time, Temperature, Electric Current, Luminous Intensity, and Quantity. Fundamental dimensions may be added to or subtracted from this list according to individual need.
The Dimension class allows physical quantities to be either built up from mathematical operations on other quantities (e.g., Force = Mass*Acceleration) or defined directly as a list of powers of fundamental dimensions (e.g., Force = Mass*Length/Time**2, or [1 1 -2 0 0 0 0] in vector form). Allowable mathematical operations are multiplication (adding the powers of the fundamental dimensions), division (subtracting the powers), addition/subtraction (not changing the powers, but checking for consistency), and raising to a power (multiplying powers of the fundamental dimensions). Additionally, one may check that two given physical quantities are consistent using the Dimension.consistent method.
Finally, the Dimension class supports operator overloading. This means one may, e.g., multiply two different Dimension instances using the asterisk symbol, *, without having to call the Dimension.multiply method. Consistency or inconsistency can be checked using == or !=, respectively. For example, Pressure == Stress and Velocity != Acceleration would both return True. Please see setup.py for more examples.