Foreword
Isobel Pollock (President of IMechE 2012-2013}
Sport, heaith, cooking, space, clothes and transportation.This may seem a disparate list of activities or items, but they ail have one common theme: measurement. Yet, for most of us, measurement is something we probably seldom thinkabout. Often we are unaware of the constant measuring that we do in our daily lives, and how it is the fundamental basis that enables us to make choices and decisions.
Do we need ever more accurate measurements? Surely there's no need as we have ail the units of measurement necessary?Time, distance, temperature and mass have ail been set and agreed. What possible benefits do we gain from ever more research and understanding about measurement?
In the engineering and science professions, measurement, accuracy and precision are of paramount importance, as they are the basis of what wedo and how wedo it. Recognition of the need for accurate and appropriate information through measurement goes right back to 1847 at the time of the founding of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Then, Sir Joseph What worth recognised the need to create and apply measurement standards across complex engineering assemblies.
Without those he was acutely aware ofthe detriment to machine performance and making items fit together better.
Measurement is not just a tool for determining quantities, the physical size of things, the time taken, or the units used in counting. Measurement is fundamental to control, to improvement and to verification. We measure success, and failure, and often base our actions on judgements that arise from measurement. It is far more powerfull than just a set of numbers on a scale, and by exploiting the value of measurement we, as engineers, can achieve more.
A vital example is climate change. We need to apply ourselves to help quantify one of the great issues of our age. There are far-reaching benefits in solving the challenges ahead. We should seize the opportunities for engineers to provide the measurements that matter. Indeed, the lack of agreed measurements and standards in this area is a material handrance to the development of engineering
solutions to climate change.
There has never been a better time to be an engineer. We make up just 7% of the UK population, but contribute 11% ofthe gross domestic product.111 Nowthere's a measurement to remember!
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