Dictionary · Instruments
Detection limit
The measured value, obtained by a given procedure, for which the probability of falsely claiming absence of a component is β, given a probability α of falsely claiming its presence — the statistically honest "smallest amount we can claim to see".
Related terms
More from Instruments
Detector
A device or substance that indicates the presence of a phenomenon, body, or substance when a threshold of an associated quantity is exceeded — presence, not magnitude.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 3.9
Selectivity of a measuring system
The property whereby the system provides measured values for one or more measurands that are independent of other measurands or influence quantities.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 4.13
Datum measurement error
The measurement error of an instrument or system at a specified measured value — the error quoted at a named point rather than over the whole interval.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 4.27
Sensor
The element of a measuring system directly affected by the phenomenon, body, or substance carrying the quantity being measured — the Pt resistance element in an SPRT, the seismic mass in an accelerometer.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 3.8
Indicating measuring instrument
A measuring instrument providing an output signal carrying information about the value of the quantity being measured — voltmeters, thermometers, balances.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 3.3
Resolution
The smallest change in the quantity being measured that causes a perceptible change in the corresponding indication. Digital resolution contributes a rectangular uncertainty component of (δ/2)/√3.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 4.14