Measurement problems: contemporary discussions and models

Abstract

Abstract The review discusses the basic concepts of measurement that have existed from the end of the 19th century to the present day, such as representational theory; realistic, operationalist, conventionalist, theoretical-informational, and theoretical-operational model approaches to measurement; and their advantages and weaknesses. Such characteristics of measurement as accuracy, precision, and various aspects of their application, related to agreement among measurement results, measurements and standards, measurement and ‘true’ values, as well as internal and external reproducibility of measurements, are considered. The theoretical-operational model approach to experiment (and measurement), based on V A Fock’s three-part scheme, proposed by him for quantum mechanics, is discussed in detail using an example from the physics of elementary particles. Advantages of the last approach over the others, as well as its possible applications for determining systematic uncertainty, are examined.