Importance of Measurement on Science & Technology

P M V SubbaraoProfessor

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 project’s 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-Brah´e 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 inter-subjectivity.

• 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

The father of Engineering Education in colleges.The Results of his Investigations have both a practical and philosophical aspects.

Prof. Osborne Reynolds

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

Wilhelm Nusselt

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 π theorem or any other developments of Rayleigh.

In so doing he opened the door for further heat transfer analysis

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?