Instrumentation and Systems

Objectives of todays lecture

Define quantities, units, and standards.

Define Basic units and derived units.

Quantities
A quantity is a quantifiable or assignable
property recognized to phenomena, bodies,
or substance, examples are speed of a car
and mass of an electron.

A physical quantity is a quantity that can be

used in the mathematical equations of
science and technology.

Units
A unit is a particular physical quantity, defined and
adopted by convention, with which other particular
quantities of the same kind are compared to express
their value.
The value of a physical quantity is the quantitative
expression of a particular physical quantity as the
product of a number and a unit, the number being its
numerical value. Thus, the numerical value of a
particular physical quantity depends on the unit in
which it is expressed.

Units
For example, the value of the height h of a
light pole is h = 16 m. Here h is the physical
quantity, its value expressed in the unit
"meter," unit symbol m, is 16 m, and its
numerical value when expressed in meters is
16.

Standards
In all conversations, the physical quantities are
presented with their proper values compared to the
standard, the units. The general unit of a physical
quantity is defined as its dimension. A unit system can
be developed by choosing, for each basic dimension
of the system, a specific unit. For example, the
internationally established (SI) units are the meter for
length, the kilogram for mass, and the second for
time, abbreviated as the mks system of units.
All Physical quantities in Physics can be classified into;
1. Base or fundamental quantities
2. Derived quantities.

Base quantities and units

 These units were chosen based on the

principles that they are easily and accurately
reproducible and unchanging with time. The
definitions of these base units are given in
Appendix A.

Derived quantities and units

 These are physical quantities which are

derived from the seven base quantities by
mathematical
operations
such
as
multiplication, division.

Their units are similarly derived as products

or quotients of the seven base units.

Unit less or Dimensionless

Quantities
A unit less or dimensionless quantity is a ratio
of 2 quantities having the same or no units.
Common examples include:
1. Relative density of material = density of
material / density of water
2. Strain = deformation of material / original
length of material
3. refractive index = sin i / sin r

Prefixes of Units
As physical quantities can take a wide range
of values, prefixes such as kilo, centi and milli
are used together with units to simplify the
expressions for both very large and very small
quantities.

Prefixes of Units

Measurement
During experiments, an engineer has to make a
lot of measurements, collect and analyze data,
and make decisions about the validity of his
approaches and procedures. He must have a
clear idea about the results he is going to obtain.
In this respect, he may develop models of his
expectations and compare the outcomes from
the experiments to those from the model. He
uses various measuring instruments whose
reliabilities have outmost importance in
successes of his decisions.

Define Measurement
Measurement is the process of observing
and recording the observations that are
collected as part of research effort. (General)
Measurement is the process or result of
determining the magnitude of a quantity
relative to a unit of measurement.
(Technical)

Levels of Measurement
Nominal Measurements: Numerical values just name
the attributes uniquely. Ordering is not implied.
Ordinal Measurements: Attributes can be ranked in
order; however difference between attributes have no
meaning.
Interval Measurements: Distance between attributes
have meaning in this case; however, ratio between
attributes are meaning less.
Ratio Measurements: A meaningful ratio-comparison
can be obtained among these attributes.

Levels of measurement

Basic Steps in Development of

Instruments
Development of Mathematical Model for
Identification of Parameters to be measured.
Identification of characteristics to be
possessed by a general Instruments.
Qualitative and Quantitative models for
determination of Instrument design details.
Selection of geometrical and physical
parameters.

Characteristics of measurement
systems
To choose the instrument, most suited to a particular
measurement application, we have to know the system
characteristics.
The performance characteristics may be broadly divided
into two groups, namely static and dynamic
characteristics.
Static characteristics
the performance criteria for the measurement of
quantities that remain constant, or vary only quite slowly.
Dynamic characteristics
the relationship between the system input and output
when the measured quantity (measurand) is varying
rapidly

Generalized Instrument System

Characteristics of measuring
instruments
True value: standard or reference of known
value or a theoretical value.
Accuracy: closeness to the true value; closeness
with which an instrument reading approaches
the true or accepted value of the variable
(quantity) being measured. It is considered to be
an indicator of the total error in the
measurement without looking into the sources
of errors.

 Precision: a measure of the reproducibility of

the measurements; given a fixed value of a
variable, precision is a measure of the degree
to which successive measurements differ
from one another i.e., a measure of
reproducibility or agreement with each other
for multiple trials.
Range: Range refers to values of measured to
which a measuring system will respond
properly. Values outside the range will not
produce useful output.

 Span: The difference between upper and

lower values of range is the span of
instrument.
Least Count: Least count is the smallest
difference between two indications that can
be detected on an instrument scale.
Readability: The closeness with which the
scale of instrument may be read is termed as
readability.

 Resolution: the smallest change in measured value to

which the instrument will respond, i.e. the smallest
incremental quantity that can be reliably measured.
Sensitivity: the ability of the measuring instrument to
respond to change in the measured quantity. It is
expressed as the ratio of the change of output signal
or response of the instrument to a change of input or
measured variable.
Error: deviation from the true value of the measured
variable.

 Linearity: the percentage of departure from the linear

value, i.e., maximum deviation of the output curve
from the best-fit straight line during a calibration
cycle.
Tolerance: maximum deviation allowed from the
conventional true value. It is not possible to build a
perfect system or make an exact measurement. All
devices deviate from their ideal (design)
characteristics and all measurements include
uncertainties (doubts). Hence, all devices include
tolerances in their specifications. If the instrument is
used for high-precision applications, the design
tolerances must be small. However, if a low degree of
accuracy is acceptable, it is not economical to use
expensive sensors and precise sensing components.

Validity of measurement
For experiment (or process control), it is extremely
important for a measuring system to give a valid and reliable
output. Due to imperfectness in system these readings are
never exact. However, the difference between measured
value and actual (true) value of measured should be small
enough such that the output can be used for intended
purpose.

Reliability refers to how well a measuring system reproduce

a certain reading; validity refers to how close is the reading
of measuring system to the actual (true) value of measured.
In technical terms, reliability is known as precision and
validity as accuracy.