Generic term comprising everything that can be represented with a number and a unit?

Question

I am looking for the generic term comprising all of the following:

$23.42\,\text{m}$
$200\,\text{K}$
$123\,\text{MeV}$
$ħ$

with other words, everything that can be reasonably represented with a number and a physical unit. I have no preference as to whether this term includes dimensionless scalars such as $π$ or $1.2345$. In particular this term should distinct the above entities from more abstract ones such as length, temperature or resistance. For example, I could use the desired term in the following way:

$23.42\,\text{m}$ is a [term], $200\,\text{K}$ is a [term], but length is not a [term] but [other term].

The reason I am asking this question is to get a third “opinion” on this. To avoid bias, this is also why I avoided to use any term so far. Some candidates are:

• physical quantity
• physical constant
• physical magnitude
• physical value
• values of physical quantities or values of physical magnitudes

I am not interested in mere personal opinions – I have already heard plenty of those and they were not consistent. I am rather interested in answers backed up by examples¹ from the scientific literature, preferrably in a context which ensures that the author has clearly made up his mind as to what term to use. Well-reasoned opinions are also welcome.

While I would prefer a general answer (if one exists at all), I am also happy to know terms that are only consistently used in the desired way by a specific community.

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^{¹ Be aware of references in which it is not clear whether what is being referred to is, e.g., 2 m, length or the length of this table.}

Answer 1

If you want to restrict the question to numerical quantities that have physical units, sometimes they are called "dimensionful quantities" in contrast to "dimensionless quantities" that have no units, see p. 6 of Introduction to Classical Mechanics by David Morin for an example of such usage.

Answer 2

Now that I have a better understanding of what you're asking, I think a good candidate would be "quantity value", also known as the "value of a quantity", from p. 28 of the International Vocabulary of Metrology, Basic and General Concepts and Associated Terms (VIM) by the Joint Committee for Guides in Metrology, online in pdf form here. I found this linked in the "physical quantity" wiki article, and although that term is also close to what you're asking, it appears to include vectors. "Quantity" is defined on p. 18 of the pdf file as:

property of a phenomenon, body, or substance, where the property has a magnitude that can be expressed as a number and a reference

Note 2 explains that by "reference" they mean a reference to a physical unit, measurement procedure, or "reference material" (not sure if that refers to a type of physical material or to 'reference material' in the literary sense of texts that people can refer to for more information):

NOTE 2 A reference can be a measurement unit, a measurement procedure, a reference material, or a combination of such.

And on p. 19 they add the following (somewhat confusing) note to this definition, which seems to say that vectors can be included in this term:

NOTE 5 A quantity as defined here is a scalar. However, a vector or a tensor, the components of which are quantities, is also considered to be a quantity.

The term "quantity value" on p. 28 (with two synonyms listed below it, "value of a quantity" and "value") is defined more narrowly to be a magnitude rather than a vector, though (it can be the magnitude of a vector, but not the vector itself):

quantity value

value of a quantity

value

number and reference together expressing magnitude of a quantity

So combined with the earlier definition of quantity as something that "can be expressed as a number and a reference", this seems to fit the the bill. I think the synonyms "value of a quantity" and just "value" sound a bit more natural, I believe I've read physicists using them in the past, but I can't remember reading anyone talk about a "quantity value" before.

Answer 3

I don't see any reason not to suggest "scalar".

Yes, the word is usually used to make a distinction vis a vis vectors and higher rank tensors, but it seems to be exactly applicable.