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A computer program for a general case evaluation of the expanded uncertainty

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Abstract

The ISO Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement provides a uniform method for the evaluation of combined standard uncertainty of a measurand whose expectation and standard deviation are stable over the measurement period. However, the method provided for the evaluation of the expanded uncertainty is not complete. Particularly, it does not include the case where the contributing components are correlated. Also, the probability distribution of the combined uncertainty must be close to a Normal distribution otherwise other methods must be used. The method presented here, which is implemented in a computer program, is based on a combination of the ISO guide method and Monte-Carlo simulation.

The Monte-Carlo Simulation can obtain the data needed for the evaluation of the expanded and standard uncertainties directly from the measurement equation (that defines the measurand in terms of the contributing components) or from a spreadsheet-like format. Some sample results obtained by the computer program using both methods are compared and discussed.

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References

  1. Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement, BIPM, IEC, IFCC, ISO, IUPAC, IUPAP, OIML. ISO 1995

  2. Lepek A Software for the prediction of measurement standards, NCSL International workshop and symposium 2001

  3. Lepek A (1999) The Metrology of unstable measurands, Accred Qual Assur 4:256–258

  4. UKAS document M3003, The Expression of Uncertainty and Confidence in Measurement, 1997

  5. EA document EA-4/02, Expression of the Uncertainty in Calibration, 1999

  6. VIM, International Vocabulary of Basic and General Terms in Metrology, BIPM, IEC, IFCC, ISO, IUPAC, IUPAP, OIML. ISO 1993

  7. The program Evaluator can be downloaded from: http://metrologyforum.tm.agilent.com/download.shtml or http://www.agilent.com/metrology/download.shtml

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Newton Metrology Ltd., P.O.Box 9769, 91091, Jerusalem , Israel

    Alex Lepek

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  1. Alex Lepek
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Correspondence to Alex Lepek.

Additional information

Presented at the 14th International conference of the Israel Society for Quality, 18–22 November 2002, Jerusalem, Israel

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Lepek, A. A computer program for a general case evaluation of the expanded uncertainty. Accred Qual Assur 8, 296–299 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00769-003-0649-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00769-003-0649-1

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