Importance of Measurement on Science

1
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
2
Philosophy to Realism

• Historical Truths.

3
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.

4
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 . . .

5
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.

6
The Wonder of XIX Century

• The Thought Experiment Ernst Mach
• All experiments are guided by theory, not all the
  experiments require a laboratory..

7
Importance of Measurements in Thermal Engineering
8
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.
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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 p theorem or any other developments of
Rayleigh. In so doing he opened the door for
further heat transfer analysis
Wilhelm Nusselt
10
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.

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The Outcome of Measurement..
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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.

13
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.

14
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?