1,720,982 research outputs found
C'è ancora una differenza tra misurare e calcolare? (1)
No full textÈ noto e non problematico che il valore di una grandezza G può essere generalmente ottenuto sia misurando direttamente G, dunque applicando all'oggetto sotto misurazione uno strumento sensibile a G, sia calcolando il valore a partire da valori noti di grandezze connesse a G attraverso un'equazione. Per esempio, un'accelerazione può essere misurata direttamente con un accelerometro, oppure può essere calcolata dai valori di una forza e di una massa attraverso il secondo principio della dinamica. Meno ovvio è che anche questa seconda modalità sia considerabile un caso di misurazione, indiretta secondo la terminologia tradizionale, in cui il valore del misurando è ottenuto da un calcolo. D'altra parte, non ogni forma di computazione è, o è parte di, una misurazione indiretta. La distinzione tra misurazione indiretta e computazione potrebbe apparire una questione solo semantica, di interesse solo per chi scrive vocabolari, ma non è così
Measurement, Models, and Uncertainty
No full textAgainst the tradition, which has considered measurement able to produce pure data on physical systems, the unavoidable role played by the modeling activity in measurement is increasingly acknowledged, particularly with respect to the evaluation of measurement uncertainty. This paper characterizes measurement as a knowledge-based process and proposes a framework to understand the function of models in measurement and to systematically analyze their influence in the production of measurement results and their interpretation. To this aim, a general model of measurement is sketched, which gives the context to highlight the unavoidable, although sometimes implicit, presence of models in measurement and, finally, to propose some remarks on the relations between models and measurement uncertainty, complementarily classified as due to the idealization implied in the models and their realization in the experimental setup
Problemi filosofici del controllo
No full textLo scopo del presente lavoro è quello di analizzare in prospettiva filosofica il concetto di controllo, identificando la struttura dei sistemi di controllo e quindi presentando la relazione tra la dinamica del controllo e la struttura di finalizzazione che appare caratterizzare i sistemi biologici. Il contributo è diviso in quattro sezioni dedicate, rispettivamente, all’identificazione della dinamica del controllo, all’interpretazione di tale dinamica, alla relazione tra la dinamica di controllo e finalità, con particolare riferimento alla distinzione tra teleonomia e teleologia, e, infine, alla relazione tra dinamica di controllo e libertà. Le due sezioni finali tratteranno brevemente problemi circa l’interpretazione teleologica dei sistemi dinamici e la relazione tra libertà e imposizione di un controllo
Outline of general model of measurement
No full textMeasurement is a process aimed at acquiring and codifying information
about properties of empirical entities. In this paper we provide an interpretation of
such a process comparing it with what is nowadays considered the standard measurement
theory, i.e., representational theory of measurement. It is maintained here that
this theory has its own merits but it is incomplete and too abstract, its main weakness
being the scant attention reserved to the empirical side of measurement, i.e., to
measurement systems and to the ways in which the interactions of such systems with
the entities under measurement provide a structure to an empirical domain. In particular
it is claimed that (1) it is on the ground of the interaction with a measurement
system that a partition can be induced on the domain of entities under measurement
and that relations among such entities can be established, and that (2) it is the usage
of measurement systems that guarantees a degree of objectivity and intersubjectivity
to measurement results. As modeled in this paper, measurement systems link the
abstract theory of measuring, as developed in representational terms, and the practice
of measuring, as coded in standard documents such as the International Vocabulary
of Metrology
On Representing Information: A Characterization of the Analog/Digital Distinction
Full text linkThe common account of the analog vs digital distinction is based on features of physical systems,being related to the usage of continuous vs discrete supports respectively. It is proposed here to
alternatively characterize the concepts of analog and digital as related to coding systems, of which a formal definition is given, by suggesting that the distinction refers to the strategy adopted to define the coding function: extensional in digital systems, isomorphic intensional in analog systems. This thesis is supported by examples, in particular of analog systems exploiting discrete supports, and is discussed to explain why digital coding is currently so widespread in technological and social practice
Quantity and quantity value
Full text linkThe concept system around ‘quantity’ and ‘quantity value’ is fundamental for
measurement science, but some very basic issues are still open on such concepts and their relation.
This paper argues that quantity values are in fact individual quantities, and that a complementarity
exists between measurands and quantity values. This proposal is grounded on the analysis of three
basic relations: (i) between quantities, (ii) between quantity values, and (iii) between quantities and
quantity values. A consistent characterization of such concepts is obtained, which is then
generalized to ‘property’ and ‘property value’. This analysis also throws some light on the elusive
concept of magnitude
Property Evaluation Types
No full textAn appropriate characterization of property types is an important topic for measurement science. On the basis of a set-theoretic model of evaluation and measurement processes, the paper introduces the operative concept of property evaluation type, and discusses how property types are related to, and in fact can be derived from, property evaluation types, by finally analyzing the consequences of these distinctions for the concepts of ‘property’ used in the International Vocabulary of Metrology – Basic and General Concepts and Associated Terms (VIM3)
Towards a concept of property evaluation type
No full textAn appropriate characterization of property types is an important topic for
measurement science. This paper proposes to derive them from evaluation types, and analyzes the consequences of this position for the VIM3
A structural interpretation of measurement and some related epistemological issues
No full textMeasurement is widely applied because its results are assumed to be more reliable than opinions and guesses, but this reliability is sometimes justified in a stereotyped way. After a critical analysis of such stereotypes, a structural characterization of measurement is proposed, as partly empirical and partly theoretical process, by showing that it is in fact the structure of the process that guarantees the reliability of its results. On this basis the role and the structure of background knowledge in measurement and the justification of the conditions of object-relatedness ("objectivity") and subject-independence ("intersubjectivity") of measurement are specifically discussed
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