Dictionary · Instruments
Resolution of a displaying device
The smallest difference between displayed indications that can be meaningfully distinguished — for a digital display, one count of the least significant digit.
Related terms
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Maximum permissible error (MPE)
The extreme value of measurement error, with respect to a known reference value, permitted by specifications or regulations for a given instrument. Verification confirms indications fall within ±MPE.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 4.26
Measuring transducer
A device, used in measurement, that provides an output quantity having a specified relation to the input quantity — a thermocouple, a load cell, a pressure-to-current converter.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 3.7
Measuring interval
The set of values of quantities of the same kind that can be measured by a given instrument or system with specified instrumental uncertainty under defined conditions — the interval the specifications actually promise.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 4.7
Instrument bias
The average of replicate indications minus a reference quantity value — the instrument-level counterpart of measurement bias.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 4.20
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
Sensitivity of a measuring system
The quotient of the change in an indication and the corresponding change in the value of the quantity being measured.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 4.12