Standards of Measurement

Dr. Janakarajan Ramkumar

Professor
Department of Mechanical & Design Program
IIT Kanpur, India.
 Contents
 SI Base Units
◦ Metre, Kilogram, Second, Ampere, Kelvin, and Mole

 Material Standard
◦ Yard

 Wavelength standard
◦ Modern metre

 Line and end standards

 Hierarchical classification of standards

SI Base Units
(Metre)
• Prior (1793): 1/10000000 of the meridian through Paris between the North
Pole and the Equator.

• Interim (1960): 1650763.73 wavelengths in a vacuum of

the radiation corresponding to the transition between the 2p10 and
5d5 quantum levels of the krypton-86 atom.

• Current (1983): The distance travelled by light in vacuum

in 1/299792458 second.
SI Base Units
(Kilogram)

• Prior (1793): The grave was defined as being the mass (then called weight) of
one litre of pure water at its freezing point.

• Current (1889): The mass of a small squat cylinder of ~47 cubic centimetres
of platinum-iridium alloy kept in a laboratory in France. Also, in practice, any
of numerous official replicas of it.
SI Base Units
(Second)
• Prior: 1/86400 of a day of 24 hours of 60 minutes of 60 seconds

• Interim (1956): 1/31556925.9747 of the tropical year for 1900 January 0 at

12 hours ephemeris time.

• Current (1967): The duration of 9192631770 periods of the radiation

corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of
the ground state of the caesium-133 atom.
SI Base Units
(Ampere)

• Prior (1881): A tenth of the electromagnetic CGS unit of current. The [CGS]
electromagnetic unit of current is that current, flowing in an arc 1 cm long of
a circle 1 cm in radius, that creates a field of one oersted at the centre.

• Current (1946): The constant current which, if maintained in two straight

parallel conductors of infinite length, of negligible circular cross-section, and
placed 1 m apart in vacuum, would produce between these conductors
a force equal to 2×10−7 newtons per metre of length.
SI Base Units
(Kelvin)

• Prior (1743): The centigrade scale is obtained by assigning 0 °C to

the freezing point of water and 100 °C to the boiling point of water.

• Interim (1954): The triple point of water (0.01 °C) defined to be exactly
273.16 K.

• Current (1967): 1/273.16 of the thermodynamic temperature of the triple

point of water.
SI Base Units
(Mole)
• Prior (1900): A stoichiometric quantity which is the equivalent mass in grams
of Avogadro's number of molecules of a substance.

• Current (1967): The amount of substance of a system which contains as

many elementary entities as there are atoms in 0.012 kilogram of carbon-12.
Material Standard
• Two standard systems for linear measurement that have been accepted and
adopted worldwide are English and metric (yard and metre) systems.

• The problem with material standards used earlier was that the materials
used for defining the standards could change their size with temperature and
other conditions.

• Yard or metre is defined as the distance between two scribed lines on a bar
of metal maintained under certain conditions of temperature and support.
Material Standard
(Yard)
• The imperial standard yard is a bronze bar 1 sq. inch in cross-section and 38
inches in length, having a composition of 82% Cu, 13% tin, and 5% Zn.

• Yard is then defined as the distance between the two central transverse lines
of the plug maintained at a temperature of 62 °F.

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 Material Standard
(Yard)
• It is defined as the distance between the centre positions of the two lines
engraved on the highly polished surface of a 102 cm bar of pure platinum–
iridium alloy (90% platinum and 10% iridium) maintained at 0°C under normal
atmospheric pressure and having the cross-section of a web.

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 Material Standard
(Yard)
• The top surface of the web contains graduations coinciding with the neutral axis
of the section.

• Since the section is uniform and has graduations on the neutral axis, it allows
the whole surface to be graduated.

• This type of cross-section provides greater rigidity for the amount of metal
involved and is economical even though an expensive metal is used for its
construction.
Disadvantages of Material Standards
1. Material standards are affected by changes in environmental conditions
such as temperature, pressure, humidity, and ageing, resulting in variations
in length.

2. Preservation of these standards is difficult because they must have

appropriate security to prevent their damage or destruction.

3. Replicas of material standards are not available for use at other places.

4. They cannot be easily reproduced.

5. Comparison and verification of the sizes of gauges pose considerable

difficulty.
Wavelength Standard
• By using wavelengths of a monochromatic light as a natural and invariable
unit of length, the dependency of the working standard on the physical
standard can be eliminated.

• According to this standard, metre is defined as 1,650,763.73 × wavelengths

of the red–orange radiation of a krypton 86 atom in vacuum.
Wavelength Standard
(Modern Metre)
• The modern metre was defined in the 17th General Conference of Weights
and Measures held on 20 October 1983.

• According to this, the metre is the length of the path travelled by light in
vacuum during a time interval of 1/299,792,458 of a second.

• This standard is technologically more accurate and feasible when compared

to the red–orange radiation of a krypton 86 atom and can be realized in
practice through the use of an iodine-stabilized helium–neon laser.
Subdivision of Standards
• Primary Standards: Primary standards are preserved carefully and
maintained under standard atmospheric conditions so that they do not
change their values.

• Secondary Standards: These are derived from primary standards and

resemble them very closely with respect to design, material, and length. Any
error existing in these bars is recorded by comparison with primary standards
after long intervals. These are kept at different locations under strict
supervision and are used for comparison with tertiary standards.
Subdivision of Standards
• Tertiary Standards: Primary and secondary standards are the ultimate
controls for standards; these are used only for reference purposes and that
too at rare intervals.

• Working Standards: When compared to the other three standards, the

materials used to make these standards are of a lower grade and cost. These
are derived from fundamental standards and suffer from loss of instrumental
accuracy due to subsequent comparison at each level in the hierarchical
chain.
Line and End Measurements

• When the distance between two engraved lines is used to measure the
length, it is called line standard or line measurement.

• When the distance between two flat parallel surfaces is considered a

measure of length, it is known as end standard or end measurement.

• The end faces of the end standards are hardened to reduce wear and lapped
flat and parallel to a very high degree of accuracy.
Line and End Measurement:
Characteristics (Line)
1. Measurements carried out using a scale are quick and easy and can be used
over a wide range.

2. Even though scales can be engraved accurately, it is not possible to take full
advantage of this accuracy. The engraved lines themselves possess
thickness, making it difficult to perform measurements with high accuracy.

3. The markings on the scale are not subjected to wear. Undersizing occurs as
the leading ends are subjected to wear.

4. A scale does not have a built-in datum, which makes the alignment of the
scale with the axis of measurement difficult. This leads to undersizing.
Line and End Measurements:
Characteristics (End)
1. These standards are highly accurate and ideal for making close tolerance
measurement.

2. They measure only one dimension at a time, thereby consuming more time.

3. The measuring faces of end standards are subjected to wear.

4. They possess a built-in datum because their measuring faces are flat and
parallel and can be positively located on a datum surface.

5. Groups of blocks/slip gauges are wrung together to create the required size;
faulty wringing leads to inaccurate results.
Hierarchical classification of standards
National Standards

National Reference
Standards

Working Standards

Interlaboratory Standards

Reference Standards for

Laboratory

Working Standards

Working or reference
standards of lower grade
Transfer from Line to End Standard
• A line standard having a basic length of more than 1m. This line standard
consists of a central length bar that has a basic length of 950mm. Two end
blocks of 50 mm each are wrung on either end of the central bar.

• The four different ways in which the two end blocks can be arranged using all
possible combinations and then compared with the primary line standard are
Transfer from Line to End Standard
Transfer from Line to End Standard

Raghvendra and Krishnamurthy, Engineering Metrology and Measurements

Numerical problems
Q1. A calibrated metre and bar has an actual length 1000.0006 mm. It is to be
used in the calibration of two bars A and B each having length of 500 mm.
When compared with the metre bar LA + LB was found to be shorter by 0.0003
mm. In comparing A with B it was found that A was 0.0005 mm longer than B.
Find the actual length of A and B.
Numerical problems
Q2. Three 100 mm gauges are measured on a level comparator by first
wringing them together and then comparing with 300 mm gauge and an
intercomparing them. The 300 mm gauge actually measures 300.0025 mm,
and the three gauges together have a combination length of 300.0035 mm.
Gauge A is 0.0020 mm longer than gauge B but shorter than gauge C by 0.0010
mm. Determine the corrected length of each gauge.
Numerical problems Q2. (Sol) :
To recapitulate:
 What are SI Base Units?

 What is Metre, Kilogram, Second, Ampere, Kelvin, or Mole?

 What are Material Standards?

 What is a Yard standard?

 What are Wavelength Standard?

 How do we differentiate between Line and end standards?

 How are standards classified hierarchically?

Task for Students
Thanks