[whacked_new]

How true is this? Isn't dimensional analysis basically one kind of bookkeeping like Haskell's type checking?

What makes it particularly important in theoretical physics? Is it "foundational" because equations become unintuitive?

[dehowell]

With known equations, then yes, dimensional analysis is essentially just a form of bookkeeping that helps you verify your math as you go.

But once you get into using quantum field theory to study new systems, the standard approach is to concoct a conservation of energy equation by summing terms, where each term is a combination of the system's variables with units of energy.

From there, you can discretize the coordinates and predict the existence of various particles (or pseudo-particles, depending on what kind of system you're describing) and their dynamics.

[whacked_new]

Thanks, but...

my guess is nobody will really get what you mean until they actually try to learn QFT, huh. I'll revisit your comment in a few years.