Dictionary · 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.
Related terms
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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
Accuracy class
A class of instruments or systems that meet stated metrological requirements intended to keep errors or instrumental uncertainties within specified limits under specified conditions — OIML weight classes E1 through M3 are the canonical example.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 4.25
Rated operating condition
An operating condition that must be fulfilled during measurement for an instrument to perform as designed — the environmental and use envelope the specs assume.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 4.9
Blank indication
The indication obtained from a phenomenon, body, or substance similar to the one under investigation but for which the quantity of interest is supposed absent or not contributing — the analytical chemist's blank, generalized.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 4.2
Material measure
A device reproducing or supplying, in a permanent manner during its use, quantities of given values — gauge blocks, standard weights, volumetric flasks, standard resistors.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 3.6
Steady-state operating condition
An operating condition under which the relation established by calibration remains valid even though the measurand varies with time.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 4.8