Importance of Measurement on Science & Technology

P M V Subbarao
Professor
Mechanical Engineering Department

It is not Just to Verify a Theory.

An act of Understanding the Ultimate Truth

Philosophy to Realism

Historical Truths.

Realization of the Greatness of A Scientific Action

Newton discovered gravity.
and later scientists measured the "acceleration" of earths
gravity.
That lead to understanding how FORCE, acceleration and
mass relate.
That lead us to understand how the universe works and
how to get to the MOON!
If you want your projects success or failure to be based on
factual information,
you need to determine ahead of time what your success
criteria are and how to measure them.

Creation of Physical Laws in Classical Science

The first scientific revolution arose during the XVI and XVII
centuries.
In mechanics for instance,
Galileo was able to set up relationships between parameters of
motions.
By measurement he observed that proportions were respected
between non commensurable quantities: the velocity reached by
a falling body is proportional to the time of fall and the height of
falling proportional to its square . . .
Kepler used the huge amount of astronomical data collected by
Tycho-Brahe to set up some laws of the motion of the planets
around the sun
The proportionality of the square of the period to the third power
of the length of the main axis of their elliptical trajectory . . .

The New Scientific Action Emerged in XVII Century

Scientists were attempting to observe new unexplained
situations, using instruments taken from craftsmen (pumps,
thermometers . . . ).
In chemistry, in the field of heat and energy, later in
electricity and magnetism, progress relied on the confidence
in observers.
Bacon, Boyle, Hooke, Newton . . . established a reliable
representation of those phenomena based on intersubjectivity.
At the end of the XVIIIcentury, the diffusion of knowledge,
arts and crafts in Europe prepared the convergence between
classical and experimental sciences.

The Wonder of XIX Century

The Thought Experiment : Ernst Mach

All experiments are guided by theory, not all the
experiments require a laboratory..

Importance of Measurements in Thermal

Engineering

The Science of Turbulence

Prof. Osborne Reynolds
The father of Engineering Education in
colleges.
The Results of his Investigations have
both a practical and philosophical
aspects.
Practical Aspect: The law of resistance to motion of water in pipes.
Philosophical Aspects:
Fundamental principle of fluid motion;
General character of the motion of fluids in contact with solid surfaces.

The Science of Convection Heat Transfer

The Basic Laws of Heat Transfer, in
which he first proposed the
dimensionless groups now known as the
principal parameters in the similarity
theory of heat transfer.
During this teaching tenure he developed
the dimensional analysis of heat transfer,
without any knowledge of the
Buckingham theorem or any other
developments of Rayleigh.
In so doing he opened the door for
further heat transfer analysis

Wilhelm Nusselt

You Can't Manage What You Don't Measure

You can't manage what you don't measure.

An old management adage that is accurate today.
Unless you measure something you don't know if it is
getting better or worse.
You can't manage for improvement if you don't measure to
see what is getting better and what isn't.

The Outcome of Measurement..

What is An Outcome of A Measurement?

Measurement leads to the expression of characteristics of
systems in terms of numbers.
Present culture is crazy about numbers.
We seek standardization, we revere precision, and we
aspire for control.
The very ancient and dominant belief of Western culture is
that numbers are what is real.
If you can number it, you make it real.
Once made real, it's yours to manage and control.
We increasingly depend on numbers to know how we are
doing for virtually everything.
We ascertain our health with numbers.

Measurement is Answer to All Questions

The aim of measurement is to give reliable knowledge on
objects or concepts.
How many calories or grams should I eat?
What's my cholesterol reading?
We assess one another with numbers.
What's your I.Q.?
What's your GPA? Your Emotional Intelligence?
And of course we judge organizational viability only with
numbers.

The Significance of Numbers

It is numbers and only numbers that define and make visible
what is real.
This is the "hard stuff," the real world of engineering and
Management - graphs, charts, indices, ratios.
The work of Modern Technical Executives is to interpret and
manipulate these numeric views of reality.
The desire to be good MTEs has compelled many people to
become earnest students of measurement.
Are measures and numbers the right pursuit?
Do the right measures make for better Executives/Scientists?