BCSSS

International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

2nd Edition, as published by Charles François 2004 Presented by the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science Vienna for public access.

About

The International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics was first edited and published by the system scientist Charles François in 1997. The online version that is provided here was based on the 2nd edition in 2004. It was uploaded and gifted to the center by ASC president Michael Lissack in 2019; the BCSSS purchased the rights for the re-publication of this volume in 200?. In 2018, the original editor expressed his wish to pass on the stewardship over the maintenance and further development of the encyclopedia to the Bertalanffy Center. In the future, the BCSSS seeks to further develop the encyclopedia by open collaboration within the systems sciences. Until the center has found and been able to implement an adequate technical solution for this, the static website is made accessible for the benefit of public scholarship and education.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

MEASUREMENT SYSTEM 2)

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Set of concrete elements, organized in view of a measurement project and method, explicitely formulated and applicable to certain specific systems.

According to J.L. DESTOUCHES: "A model of this measurement system must be built, as well as a model of the measurement process, being it a physical, biological, or economical measurement" (1990, p480).

The properties of the measurement system were stated by P. GONELLA (1976) and J.L. DESTOUCHES quotes them as follows: "A measurement device must produce a "measurement signal" shaped by the measurement interaction, which brings out some information about the measured parameter, and becomes elaborated by a chain of transductors, called measurement instruments, until it produces a "reading signal ", received by the observer (which may be even another instrument).

"A distinction must be made between lecture (a description of the output signal) and the measurement (a description of the signal measured at the entry of the measurement device), which is expressed by a set of numbers related to the measurement unit. This is the "calibration relation" of the instrument which provides the relation between lecture and measure." (1990, p.480).

Thus, it is clear that any measurement is based on some preconception, depends of the characteristics of the instrument used, is generally registered in accordance with the perceptive capacity of the receiver and, finally, is interpreted in function of the observer's model.

Two more steps have entered the process under the form of computer data processing, which implies the sometimes hazardous translation of measurement data into a data system fit for computer use… and the final retranslation of the results.

Categories

  • 1) General information
  • 2) Methodology or model
  • 3) Epistemology, ontology and semantics
  • 4) Human sciences
  • 5) Discipline oriented

Publisher

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science(2020).

To cite this page, please use the following information:

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (2020). Title of the entry. In Charles François (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics (2). Retrieved from www.systemspedia.org/[full/url]

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