Statics is the action of one body on another. A force is either a push or a pull. A force tends to move a body in the direction of its action. The action of a force is characterized by its magnitude, by the direction of its action, and by its point of application. Thus, force is a vector quantity, because its effect depends on the direction as well as on the magnitude of the action. Forces are classified as either contact or body forces. A contact force is produced by direct physical contact; an example is the force exerted on a
Quantity calculus of quantity calculus and proposed that a full axiomatization has yet to be completed. Measurements are expressed as products of a numeric value with a unit symbol, e.g. "12.7 m". Unlike algebra, the unit symbol represents a measurable quantity such as a meter, not an algebraic variable. A careful distinction needs to be made between abstract quantities and measurable quantities. The multiplication and division rules of quantity calculus are applied to SI base units (which are measurable quantities) to define SI derived units, including dimensionless derived units, such as the radian (rad) and steradian (sr) which are useful for clarity,