QIMT Glossary
Definitions of Metrology terms & phrases.
If you know of a term or phrase that belongs here, you can submit the term or phrase and associated definition by adding an entry. NOTE: All entries are reviewed and approved prior to being seen by others on the site.
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- Click on the "Add a New Entry" button.
- Under the first required field labeled 'Concept', enter the Metrology word or term.
- In the 'Description' Field, put the definition, don't forget to use the "DeWord" button to remove MS Word formatting if you are copying and pasting from MS Word; see lounge forum for note regarding this issue.
- Ignore the other entries and submit.
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Browse the glossary using this index
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SADCMET Southern African Development Community (SADC) Cooperation in Measurement Traceability. | |
Scale division Part of a scale between any two successive scale marks. | |
Scale range The set of values bounded by the extreme indications on an analogue measuring instrument. | |
Scale spacing Distance between two successive adjacent scale marks measured along the same line as the scale length. | |
SCSC APEC Sub-committee on Standards and Conformance. | |
Secondary standard Standard whose value is assigned by comparison with a primary standard of the same quantity. | |
Sensor Element in a measuring instrument or a measuring chain that is directly influenced by the measurand. | |
SI system The international system of units, Le Syst | |
SI unit A unit in the SI system. | |
SIM Sistema Interamricano de Metrologia, Normalizaci | |
SMU Slovensky Metrologicky Ustav, the national metrological institute of the Slovak Republic. | |
SP Sveriges Provnings- och Forskningsinstitut, the national metrological institute of Sweden. | |
Span Modulus of the difference between two limits of a nominal range. | |
Stability The ability of a measuring instrument to maintain constant its metrological characteristics with time. | |
Standard See Measuring standard. | |
standard deviationStatistics: "Measure of the unpredictability of a random variable, expressed as the average deviation of a set of data from its arithmetic mean and computed as the positive square root of the variance. Customarily represented by the lower-case Greek letter sigma (σ), it is considered the most useful and important measure of dispersion which has all the essential properties of the variance plus the advantage of being determined in the same units as those of the original data. Also called root mean square (RMS) deviation." As per the ISO GUM, the standard deviation = the standard uncertainty for the given contributor. | |
Standard deviation, experimental Parameters for a series of n measurements of the same measurand, characterises the dispersion of the results and is given by the formula for standard deviation. | |
Standard Reference Material, see Reference Material, Certified. | |
Standard, compound A set of similar material measures or measuring instruments that, through their combined use constitutes one standard called a compound standard. | |
Standard, transfer Standard used as an intermediary to compare standards. | |
Standard, travelling Standard, sometimes specially composed, for use in making comparisons between standards at different locations. | |
Stimulus The input signal for a measuring system can be called a stimulus and the output signal can be called a response. | |
System of measurement units A number of basic units and derived units defined in accordance with given rules for a given system of values. | |
System of units | |
Systematic error Mean that would result from an infinite number of measurements of the same measurand carried out under repeatability conditions minus a true value of the measurand. | |