#1001842 qalc performs wrong unit conversion without warning when asked to do so

Package:
qalc
Source:
libqalculate
Description:
Powerful and easy to use command line calculator
Submitter:
Date:
2022-04-10 19:15:03 UTC
Severity:
normal
Tags:
#1001842#5
Date:
2021-12-17 16:07:58 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,

* What led up to the situation?

 I tried to perform an unit conversion using qalc.

* What exactly did you do (or not do) that was effective (or
     ineffective)?

 I did the following calculation in qalc

	3m/(A*T) -> Pa

* What was the outcome of this action?

	(3 × meter) / (ampere × tesla) ≈ 0,3333333333 Pa


* What outcome did you expect instead?

 A warning that this conversion is not possible or alternatively a
correct result including this unit, e.g.:

	(3 × meter) / (ampere × tesla) = 3 Pa^−1

For clarification: The result of the conversion is wrong because
the following physical equation (written in LaTeX) is true:

\[\mathrm{1 \frac{m}{A \cdot T} = 1 \frac{m \cdot A s^2}{A \cdot kg} =
1 \frac{m \cdot s^2}{kg} = 1 \frac{1}{Pa}}\]


Thanks for maintaining qalc!

Marcel

#1001842#10
Date:
2022-04-10 19:13:56 UTC
From:
To:
Hi Marcel,

Thanks for your interest in qalc!

I am not particularly familiar with units in physics, though this seems
to revolve around the upstream code and not the packaging itself. As
such, I recommend filing an issue upstream @
https://github.com/Qalculate/libqalculate/issues. Hanna (the maintainer)
is super active, and I'm sure they can take a look at this.

Best,
James