Dictionary · Standards & Units
Conventional reference scale
A quantity-value scale defined by formal agreement — pH and the practical temperature scales are canonical examples.
Related terms
More from Standards & Units
Primary measurement standard
A standard established using a primary reference measurement procedure, or created as an artifact chosen by convention — not calibrated against another standard for the same quantity.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 5.4
Intrinsic measurement standard
A standard based on an inherent and reproducible property of a phenomenon or substance — the triple point of water cell, the Josephson voltage standard.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 5.10
Quantity-value scale
The ordered set of values that quantities of a given kind may take — the scale a thermometer or hardness tester reports on.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 1.27
Base quantity
A quantity in a conventionally chosen subset of a system of quantities in which no member can be expressed in terms of the others.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 1.4
Travelling measurement standard
A standard, sometimes of special construction, intended for transport between locations — the artifacts that carry interlaboratory comparisons.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 5.8
Numerical value equation
A relation between numerical values that holds only for stated units — the form most spreadsheet formulas quietly are, and the reason unit discipline matters.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 1.25