This is a problem that can be found in almost any degree; students do not find the difference between numerical symbols and numeric assignments, whether physical, chemical or natural in general.
Is the poster alluding to the difference between "counting" and "measuring" (which leads directly to the concept of dimensionless analysis)?
Yes, it seems the original poster has gone silent. Anyhow, please allow me to elaborate on my post above. "Measuring" is intimately associated with the concept of a "scale", for example a length of 10m is 10 occurrences of the 1m measuring scale, whereas "counting" has no units and no scale. This is a subtle point, but it leads to the idea of dimensional (or "dimensionless", as some prefer) analysis in physics and engineering. So, for example, this is how something like the Reynolds number (Re) of viscous flow is derived. This parameter has no physical dimensions, but is made up of a combination of physical variables that have dimensions. The process is mathematically formal (e.g. Bridgman's equations and the Buckingham-Pi theorem) and yields groups that have profound physical implications. Using Re as an example again, this parameter reports the relative importance of inertial versus viscous effects and is therefore indicative of properties like whether the flow is laminar or turbulent. There are oodles of texts that do a much better job of explaining this. The "Bible" is Dimensional Analysis by G. I. Barenblatt.
http://www.amazon.com/Dimensional-Analysis-G-I-Barenblatt/dp/2881242278
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