Impact of Human Factors on Measurement Errors

Abstract

Measurement is the act or the result, of a quantitative comparison between a given quantity and a quantity of the same kind chosen as a unit. It is for observing and testing scientific and technological investigations and generally agreed that all measurements contain errors. In a measuring system where both a measuring instrument and a human being taking the measurement using a preset process, the measurement error could be due to the instrument, the process or human error. This study is devoted to understanding the human errors in measurement. Work and human involvement related factors that could affect measurement errors have been identified. An experimental study has been conducted using different subjects where the factors were changed one at a time and the measurements made by them recorded. Errors in measurement were then calculated and the data so obtained was subject to statistical analysis to draw conclusions regarding the influence of different factors on human errors in measurement. The findings are presented in the paper.