Tuesday, February 10, 2009
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Human senses are limited, and are subject to errors in perception such as optical illusions. Scientific instruments were developed to magnify human powers of observation, such as weighing scales, clocks, telescopes, microscopes, thermometers, cameras, and tape recorders, and also translate into perceptible form events that are unobservable by human senses, such as indicator dyes, voltmeters, spectrometers, oscilloscopes, interferometers, geiger counters, MRI machines, radio telescopes, and DNA sequencers.
One problem encountered throughout scientific fields is that the observation may affect the process being observed, resulting in a different outcome than if the process was unobserved. For example, it is not possible to check the air pressure in an automobile tire without letting out some of the air, changing the pressure.
noun: 1.The act or faculty of observing. 2.The fact of being observed. 3.The act of noting and recording something, such as a phenomenon, with instruments. 4. The result or record of such notation: a meteorological observation. 5.A comment or remark. 6. An inference or a judgment that is acquired from or based on observing.
Human sense impressions are subjective and qualitative making them difficult to record or compare. The idea of measurement evolved to allow recording and comparison of observations made at different times and places by different people. Measurement consists of using observation to compare the thing being measured to a standard; an artifact, process or definition which can be duplicated or shared by all observers, and counting how many of the standard units are comparable to the object. Measurement reduces an observation to a number which can be recorded, and two observations which result in the same number are equal within the resolution of the process.
Human senses are limited, and are subject to errors in perception such as optical illusions. Scientific instruments were developed to magnify human powers of observation, such as weighing scales, clocks, telescopes, microscopes, thermometers, cameras, and tape recorders, and also translate into perceptible form events that are unobservable by human senses, such as indicator dyes, voltmeters, spectrometers, oscilloscopes, interferometers, geiger counters, MRI machines, radio telescopes, and DNA sequencers.
One problem encountered throughout scientific fields is that the observation may affect the process being observed, resulting in a different outcome than if the process was unobserved. For example, it is not possible to check the air pressure in an automobile tire without letting out some of the air, changing the pressure.
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