The Statistics Of
    Measurement
 Types Of Errors
 Random Errors
 Normal Distribution
 Standard Errors Of
    Derived Quantities
 Propagation Of Small
    Systematic Errors

Introduction to the Statistics of Measurement

An understanding of the measurement process is essential in the geomatic sciences, anybody can be taught to use an instrument to measure a quantity by only a few will ever truly understand the significance of those measurements. Luckily geomatics practitioners are some of those privileged few.

We will start with a few statements:

1. no measurement is exact

2. every measurement contains errors

3. the true value is never known

4. the true error is never known

If we conduct surveying measurements understanding the relevance of these statements then our measurement project will be considerable more successful than if we merely took the readings on face value. This set of lecture notes will give a little more detail on how measurements are treated in geomatics science, however the material really only deals with the simple cases. Considerably more detail on the adjustment of survey measurements will be given in later year surveying subjects.