INTRODUCTION TO
METROLOGY
DEFINITIONS
Metrology is the study of measurements
Measurements are quantitative observations;
numerical descriptions
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OVERVIEW
This longer lecture explores general principles of
metrology
Next 3 shorter lectures apply principles to specific
measurements: weight, volume, pH
Later will talk about measuring light transmittance
(spectrophotometry)
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WE WANT TO MAKE GOOD
MEASUREMENTS
Making measurements is woven throughout
daily life in a lab.
Often take measurements for granted, but
measurements must be good.
What is a good measurement?
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EXAMPLE
A man weighs himself in the morning on his
bathroom scale, 172 pounds.
Later, he weighs himself at the gym,173
pounds.
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QUESTIONS
How much does he really weigh?
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Do you trust one or other scale? Which one?
Could both be wrong? Do you think he
actually gained a pound?
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Are these good measurements?
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NOT SURE
We are not exactly certain of the mans true
weight because:
Maybe his weight really did change always
sample issues
Maybe one or both scales are wrong always
instrument issues
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DO WE REALLY CARE?
Do you care if he really gained a pound?
How many think give or take a pound is
OK?
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ANOTHER EXAMPLE
Suppose a premature baby is weighed. The
weight is recorded as 5 pounds 3 ounces and
the baby is sent home.
Do we care if the scale is off by a pound?
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GOOD MEASUREMENTS
A good measurement is one that can be
trusted when making decisions.
We just made judgments about scales.
We make this type of judgment routinely.
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IN THE LAB
Anyone who works in a lab makes judgments about
whether measurements are good enough
but often the judgments are made subconsciously
differently by different people
Want to make decisions
Conscious
Consistent
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QUALITY SYSTEMS
All laboratory quality systems are concerned
with measurements
All want good measurements
Some language is quoted in your lab manual
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NEED
Awareness of issues so can make good
measurements.
Language to discuss measurements.
Tools to evaluate measurements.
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METROLOGY VOCABULARY
Very precise science with imprecise
vocabulary
(word precise has several precise meanings that
are, without uncertainty, different)
Words have multiple meanings, but specific
meanings
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VOCABULARY
Units of measurement
Standards
Calibration
Traceability
Tolerance
Accuracy
Precision
Errors
Uncertainty
UNITS OF MEASUREMENT
Units define measurements
Example, gram is the unit for mass
What is the mass of a gram? How do we
know?
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DEFINITIONS MADE BY
AGREEMENT
Definitions of units are made by international
agreements, SI system
Example, kilogram prototype in France
K10 and K20 at NIST
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EXTERNAL AUTHORITY
Measurements are always made in
accordance with external authority
Early authority was Pharaohs arm length
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A standard is an external authority
Also, standard is a physical embodiment
of a unit
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STANDARDS ARE:
Physical objects, the properties of which are
known with sufficient accuracy to be used to
evaluate other items.
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STANDARDS ARE AFFECTED BY
THE ENVIRONMENT
Units are unaffected by the environment, but
standards are
Example, Pharaohs arm length might change
Example, a ruler is a physical embodiment of
centimeters
Can change with temperature
But cm doesnt change
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STANDARDS ALSO ARE:
In chemical and biological assays,
substances or solutions used to establish the
response of an instrument or assay method
to an analyte
See these in spectrophotometry labs
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STANDARDS ALSO ARE:
Documents established by consensus and
approved by a recognized body that establish
rules to make a process consistent
Example ISO 9000
ASTM standard method calibrating micropipettor
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CALIBRATION IS:
Bringing a measuring system into accordance
with external authority, using standards
For example, calibrating a balance
Use standards that have known masses
Relate response of balance to units of kg
Do this in lab
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PERFORMANCE VERIFICATION
IS:
Check of the performance of an instrument or
method without adjusting it.
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TOLERANCE IS:
Amount of error that is allowed in the
calibration of a particular item. National and
international standards specify tolerances.
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EXAMPLE
Standards for balance calibration can have
slight variation from true value
Highest quality 100 g standards have a tolerance
of + 2.5 mg
99.99975-100.00025 g
Leads to uncertainty in all weight measurements
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TRACEABILITY IS:
The chain of calibrations, genealogy, that
establishes the value of a standard or
measurement
In the U.S. traceability for most physical and
some chemical standards goes back to NIST
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TRACEABILITY
Note in this catalog example, traceable to
NIST
VOCABULARY
Standards
Calibration
Traceability
Tolerance
Play with these ideas in labs
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ACCURACY AND PRECISION
ARE:
Accuracy is how close an individual value is
to the true or accepted value
Precision is the consistency of a series of
measurements
EXPRESS ACCURACY
% error = True value measured value X 100%
True value
Will calculate this in volume lab
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EXPRESS PRECISION
Standard deviation
Expression of variability
Take the mean (average)
Calculate how much each measurement deviates
from mean
Take an average of the deviation, so it is the
average deviation from the mean
Try this in the volume lab
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ERROR IS:
Error is responsible for the difference
between a measured value and the true
value
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CATEGORIES OF ERRORS
Three types of error:
Gross
Random
Systematic
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GROSS ERROR
Blunders
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RANDOM ERROR
In U.S., weigh particular 10 g standard every
day. They see:
9.999590 g, 9.999601 g, 9.999592 g .
What do you think about this?
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RANDOM ERROR
Variability
No one knows why
They correct for humidity, barometric
pressure, temperature
Error that cannot be eliminated. Called
random error
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RANDOM ERROR
Do you think that repeating the measurement
over and over would allow us to be more
certain of the true weight of this standard?
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RANDOM ERROR
Yes, because in the presence of only random error,
the mean is more likely to be correct if repeat the
measurement many times
Standard is probably really a bit light
Average of all the values is a good estimate of its
true weight
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RANDOM ERROR AND
ACCURACY
In presence of only random error, average
value will tend to be correct
With only one or a few measurements, may
or may not be accurate
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Mean
Median
Mode
THERE IS ALWAYS RANDOM
ERROR
If cant see it, system isnt sensitive enough
Less sensitive balance: 10.00 g,
10.00 g, 10.00 g
Versus 9.999600 g
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SO
Can we ever be positive of true weight of that
standard?
No
There is uncertainty in every weight
measurement
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RELATIONSHIP RANDOM
ERROR AND PRECISION
Random error
Leads to a loss of precision
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SYSTEMATIC ERROR
Defined as measurements that are
consistently too high or too low, bias
Many causes, contaminated solutions,
malfunctioning instruments, temperature
fluctuations, etc., etc.
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SYSTEMATIC ERROR
Technician controls sources of systematic
error and should try to eliminate them, if
possible
Temperature effects
Humidity effects
Calibration of instruments
Etc.
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In the presence of systematic error, does it
help to repeat measurements?
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SYSTEMATIC ERROR
Systematic error
Does impact accuracy
Repeating measurements with systematic
error does not improve the accuracy of the
measurements
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ANOTHER DEFINTION OF
ERROR IS:
Error = is the difference between the measured
value and the true value due to any cause
Absolute error = True value - measured value
Percent error is:
True value - measured value (100 %)
True value
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ERRORS AND UNCERTAINTY
Errors lead to uncertainty in measurements
Can never know the exact, true value for
any measurement.
Idea of a true value is abstract never
knowable.
In practice, get close enough
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UNCERTAINTY IS:
Estimate of the inaccuracy of a measurement
that includes both the random and systematic
components.
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UNCERTAINTY ALSO IS:
An estimate of the range within which the true
value for a measurement lies, with a given
probability level.
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UNCERTAINTY
Not surprisingly, it is difficult to state, with
certainty, how much uncertainty there is in a
measurement value.
But that doesnt keep metrologists from trying
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METROLOGISTS
Metrologists try to figure out all the possible sources
of uncertainty and estimate their magnitude
One or another factor may be more significant. For
example, when measuring very short lengths with
micrometers, care a lot about repeatability. But, with
measurements of longer lengths, temperature
effects are far more important
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REPORT VALUES
Metrologists come up with a value for
uncertainty
You may see this in catalogues or
specifications
Example:
measured value + an estimate of uncertainty
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UNCERTAINTY ESTIMATES
Details are not important to us now
But principle is: any measurement, need to
know where the important sources of error
might be
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SIGNIFICANT FIGURES
One cause of uncertainty in all measurements is
that the value for the measurement can only read to
a certain number of places
This type of uncertainty. It is called resolution
error. (It is often evaluated using Type B methods.)
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SIIGNIFICANT FIGURE
CONVENTIONS
Significant figure conventions are used to
record the values from measurements
Expression of uncertainty
Also apply to very large counted values
Do not apply to exact values
Counts where are certain of value
Conversion factors
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ROUNDING CONVENTIONS
Combine numbers in calculations
Confusing
Look up rules when they need them
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RECORDING MEASURED
VALUES
Record measured values (or large counts) with
correct number of significant figures
Dont add extra zeros; dont drop ones that are
significant
With digital reading, record exactly what it says;
assume the last value is estimated
With analog values, record all measured values plus
one that is estimated
Discussed in Laboratory Exercise 1
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ROUNDING
A Biotechnology company specifies that the
level of RNA impurities in a certain product
must be less than or equal to 0.02%. If the
level of RNA in a particular lot is 0.024%,
does that lot meet the specifications?
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The specification is set at the hundredth
decimal place. Therefore, the result is
rounded to that place when it is reported. The
result rounded is therefore 0.02%, and it
meets the specification.
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Look at all the problems for chapter 13.
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GOOD WEB SITE FOR
SIGNIFICANT FIGURES
http://antoine.frostburg.edu/cgibin/senese/tutorials/sigfig/index.cgi
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Match these descriptions with the 4 distributions in
the figure:
Good precision, poor accuracy
Good accuracy, poor precision
Good accuracy, good precision
Poor accuracy, poor precision
THERMOMETERS
Look at the values for the thermometers on
the board.
Significant figure conventions can guide us in
how to record the value that we read off any
measuring instrument.
With these thermometers, correct number of
sig figs is _______.
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THERMOMETERS
Were they accurate?
How could we figure out the true value for
the temperature?
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REPEATING MEASUREMENTS
Would repeating measurements with these
thermometers, assuming we did not calibrate
them, improve our ability to trust them?
Is their error an example of random or
systematic error?
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CALIBRATION
Calibration of the thermometers could lead to
increased accuracy
This is a type of systematic error
In the presence of systematic error, repeating
the measurement will not improve its
accuracy
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TOLERANCE
Here is a catalog description of mercury
thermometers.
Are these thermometers out of the range for
which their tolerance is specified?
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PRECISION
Were they precise? How could precision be
measured?
Would calibration help to make them more
precise?
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CALIBRATION
Calibration would probably not improve their
precision
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RETURN TO OUR ORIGINAL TYPE
OF QUESTION
Are our temperature measurements good
measurements?
How do you make that judgment?
Can we trust them?
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THERMOMETERS GOOD
ENOUGH?
Are times that we need to be very close in
temperature measurements. For example
PCR is fairly picky.
Other times we can be pretty far off and
process will still work.
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EXPLORE SOME OF THESE
IDEAS
In lab:
Calibrate instruments
Use standards
Check performance of micropipettes
Record measurement values
Calculate per cent errors
Calculate repeatability
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