Measurement: Past, Present and Future: Part 1 Measurement History and Fundamentals

Abstract

In this article, the importance of measurement and measurement fundamentals is briefly discussed. Measurement helped our ancestors of several million years ago to develop skills to survive, then in relatively recent times to obtain the knowledge for scientific endeavour and to industrialise and very recently still to introduce automatic control and to underpin innovation. The basis of measurement scales and measurement standards has often changed, and now, there are agreed means for estimating measurement uncertainty and stating measurement accuracy with a given confidence. Measurement now has a solid basis in theory and practice and has developed into a systematic discipline.