Measurement
Measurement means compare to a fix standard value. To measure something is to give a number to some property of the thing. Measuring something puts the amount of the thing into numbers. Measurement can be written using many different units. For example, if we want to compare two different sized container for holding a given quantity of liquid, we can ask: Are both containers the same size? Will they hold the same amount of liquid?
What can be measured?
Many things can be measured. Some properties of things that can be measured:
- Distance: For example, distance measurements can be used to answer the following questions;
- How far is the city from here?
- How far apart are these two trees?
- How long is this stick?
- Weight: For example, weight measurements can be used to answer the following questions;
- What is heavier, this group of apples or that group of bananas?
- Did John lose weight in the last year?
- Will putting this rock in the boat make the boat sink?
- Temperature: For example, temperature measurements can be used to answer the following questions;
- Where is hotter today? In London or in Paris?
- Will this ice turn into water if I put it inside?
- Is Sally sick? Does Sally have a fever?
- Volume: For example, volume measurements can be used to answer the following questions;
- How many pails of water do I need to fill up the bath tub?
- How much olive oil do I put in this food I am making?
- How many blocks can I fit in this box?
- Pressure: For example, pressure measurements can be used to answer the following questions;
- How much air should I put in this automobile tire?
- Will the weather stay good or will we have a storm?
- Will my ears pop when I climb that hill?
One can measure many other things.
Units of measurement
Most properties are measured using a number and a unit of measurement. The unit of measurement is a standard amount. The number compares the property to the standard amount.
Measure theory
There is an advanced branch of mathematics that is about measuring things with unusual characteristics. This is called measure theory. This theory uses something called a “Lebesgue integral”. This takes the area under the curve differently than the more common Riemann integral. It uses horizontal slabs instead of vertical ones.
Measurement can be the capacity, how long something is, or distance, etc.
Written for younger readers
Measurement, in simpler words
This version comes from Wikijunior, a set of books written for children aged 8 to 11. It is shorter and uses plainer language than the article above.
From Wikijunior: The Book of Estimation
Before you read on, there is one important thing you must remember. Try doing this activity. Get a trundle wheel and a tape measure to measure a straight line. Compare the results. Are they different? Most likely, yes. Look at the reading of the tape measure more closely. Is the length of the line exactly the same as your measurement? Actually, no. In real life, it is impossible to get the exact value of any form of continuous data.
Measurement itself is a kind of estimation; however, as you probably know how to measure things already, we will not go into detail here. Instead, we will learn some forms of indirect measurement. Indirect measurements requires more than a single tool. We will discuss different strategies of indirect measurement in the two coming chapters.
Ask yourself if you are capable of using the correct apparatus and units to calculate weight, length and capacity. Recall all the formulae related to area you have learnt, and preferably put them down somewhere so you always remember them. The examples in the main text will only cover the simplest formulae, i.e. the areas of squares and rectangles. There will be more difficult formulae in the exercises, however, so you may skip questions which require formulae you don’t know.
- ../Direct measurement/
- ../Indirect measurement 1/
- ../Indirect measurement 2/ –
Where this page comes from
The article above is adapted from “Measurement” on Simple English Wikipedia, by its contributors. We removed reference markers, navigation boxes and tables, expanded measurement templates into readable numbers, and kept the prose otherwise intact. The simpler version is adapted from Wikijunior on Wikibooks.
Both sources are published under CC BY-SA 4.0, so this page is published under the same licence. You may share and adapt it, including commercially, as long as you credit the original and keep the same licence.
Worksheets, answer keys and printable layouts elsewhere on K5Print are our own work and are not covered by this licence.