DimensionlessUnitSystem#

class gala.units.DimensionlessUnitSystem[source]#

Bases: UnitSystem

Initialize a dimensionless unit system. All quantities are treated as dimensionless.

Methods Summary

decompose(q)

A thin wrapper around astropy.units.Quantity.decompose() that knows how to handle Quantities with physical types with non-default representations.

get_constant(name)

Retrieve a constant with specified name in this unit system.

to_dict()

Return a dictionary representation of the unit system with keys set by the physical types and values set by the unit objects.

Methods Documentation

decompose(q)#

A thin wrapper around astropy.units.Quantity.decompose() that knows how to handle Quantities with physical types with non-default representations.

Parameters:
qQuantity

An instance of an astropy Quantity object.

Returns:
qQuantity

A new quantity, decomposed to be represented in this unit system.

get_constant(name)[source]#

Retrieve a constant with specified name in this unit system.

Parameters:
namestr

The name of the constant, e.g., G.

Returns:
constfloat

The value of the constant represented in this unit system.

Examples

We will get the value of the speed of light in a custom unit system:

>>> usys = UnitSystem(u.kpc, u.Myr, u.Msun, u.radian)
>>> usys.get_constant('c')  
306.6013937855506
to_dict()[source]#

Return a dictionary representation of the unit system with keys set by the physical types and values set by the unit objects.