Beyond NIST-Traceability: What really creates Accuracy?

摘要

"NIST-traceable" is often invoked as though it has some sort of magical metrological power, imparting accuracy to all it touches. In reality, it is only one of several elements of good calibration. What's worrisome in the practice of equating NIST-traceability to accuracy is the perception that it supersedes the other, equally important elements of calibration. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is the USA's federal agency responsible for ensuring that we adhere to a common measurement system. NIST, along with the world's other National Measurement Institutes (NMIs), describes our shared metrological language, without which many critical industries--life sciences, meteorology, aerospace, and more--would live in a Tower of Babel situation, metrologically speaking. This is because, without global reference standards that are shared, agreed upon, and ratified, for instance, a component made-to-measure in Malaysia might cause a catastrophic failure when assembled as part of an airplane in the U.S. We need to agree on a standardized "vocabulary" of weights and measurements; in effect we agree to accept a reference.