Abstract
This work provides a straightforward and rigorous solution to the problem of evaluating and expressing relative changes in combined uncertainty resulting from relative changes in the uncertainty components. The acquired information is essential to optimize the measurement method, indicating the most significant components to work with. This approach works for any discrete relative change in the uncertainties of the inputs, whether positive or negative, and was developed for the cases of independent and correlated quantities. Examples of both cases are treated. The results agree with that provided by direct calculation and are consistent with the ideas in EA 4/16. We propose the use of the expression “sensitivity of combined standard uncertainty to changes in uncertainty components” as a uniform quantitative reference to the individual importance of the components that form the combined uncertainty. We also discuss the reason to avoid the use of the expression “contribution of an uncertainty component to the combined uncertainty.”
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Acknowledgments
We are thankful to Drs. Guilherme A. Garcia, Oleksii Kuznetsov, and Sílvio F. Santos, from Inmetro, for valuable comments and to Tatiana C. S. Baratto for the help with the English language.
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Baratto, A.C., Bezerra, I.L. Relative sensitivity of combined standard uncertainty to changes induced in uncertainty components. Accred Qual Assur 18, 129–135 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00769-013-0954-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00769-013-0954-2