ABSTRACT
Physicists commonly speak of five fundamental quantities: distance, time, mass, electrical charge and heat. These quantities are fundamental in the sense that every other physical quantity can be derived from them. Velocity is distance divided by time; acceleration is the time derivative of velocity; force is mass multiplied by acceleration; etc. The elementary particles of the physical world – be they electrons, quarks, taus, positrons or strings – as well as the relationships between them and the larger structures to which they give rise – are all characterized by these fundamental quantities.1
