Your text has a brief discussion of dimensional analysis in Appendix B under the heading of unit conversion. Unit conversion is very important because you are often given a measurement in a units that are not those you need to work the problem. There are examples of this aspect of dimensional analysis on pages A11-A12 of your text, and this point will not be expounded on further here other than to indicate unit conversions are of the form , where C is a constant. This allows you to multiply or divide parts of equations by factors of the form since they are equal to one. There is more to dimensional analysis, however, than simple unit conversion.
Many units are combinations of dimensions and their respective units.
There are other derived units of measure that you will regularly encounter, and knowing the basic units that comprise them will greatly help the solving of problems. Knowing the proper units and dimensions can also help you recall the ordering of some basic formulas by simply making sure the units cancel properly . A sample problem is included at the end of this handout, solved with three different, but equivalent, systems of notation, just so you are familiar with each. With all that in mind, I would just like to conclude with a word of advice. Most students have little problem understanding the basic concepts presented in some general form.