an accurate comparison
How do you know that something is accurate? Most of us compare it to something we know to be more accurate. But how do you know that the "master" instrument is accurate?
I'm an engineer by training and a contrarian by nature. So this is a question I love to challenge myself with. If my ruler says an inch is this far, how I do I really know that? If another ruler says it's a bit different which is correct? I believe there exists a physical object (or more than one) that is the standard for what an inch is. However, if there is more than one, what happens if two of them differ slightly? Perhaps the environments have slightly different levels of humidity and salinity or there's a difference in any of the other infinite variables. Now which one is will we use as the correct measurement? And if the standard is changed, does that mean all of our sheets of paper are now 8.5001 x 11.0001 inches? Doesn't that then affect how long the foot, yard, and mile are? And what about the conversion between metric and imperial?
The whole thing is just crazy. I admit: there are certain measurements that have been well-defined. e.g. the Celsius scale. Also the second (it's been defined as the amount of time required for a particular monatomic substance to experience a particular number of atomic oscillations at a particular temperature and pressure).
I guess the lesson we learn--other than a spiritual lesson about comparing ourselves to the one true absolute standard, i.e. God--is that arbitrariness leaves the door open for complications. And arguments from people like me.
odometer (guestbook)
cloud watching