If you just bought something that is sold
by weight, volume, length, width, height or some other
measurable property, chances are NIST's Office of Weights
and Measures has helped assure that you brought home the
amount of product that you thought you bought. |
How
can you be confident that there indeed is a gallon of
milk in the container you bought at the market? How do
you know that the gas pump you used at your local filling
station actually delivered the amount of gasoline you
paid for? Or that there really are 2 cubic feet of mulch
in the bag you just brought home from the garden store?
The same question holds for virtually everything that you
purchase by weight, length, area, volume or some other
quantitative measure. The more you look around your
house, the more things you will find that fall into this
category--plywood, paint, garbage bags, rope, wire, land,
fabric, plastic wrap, window glass, ceiling tiles,
roofing shingles, insulation, carpeting and far too many
more to list. The reason
you personally do not have to run around with tape
measures, balances and measuring cups to confirm that you
are getting what you pay for is because there is an
extensive community of local and state "weights and
measures" officials who serve that function. The
rock upon which this nationwide community can make sure
that a pound of apples sold is a pound of apples bought
is the National Institute
of Standards and Technology (NIST), which sponsors
the National Conference on Weights and Measures (NCWM).
The NCWM is comprised of officials from local and state
weights and measures agencies from all over the country
whose role is to determine performance standards of
measuring devices (such as the amount of error tolerable
in a gas pump or grocer's scale) by which manufacturers,
distributors and vendors determine the cost and/or
amounts of products. Not only does NIST's Office
of Weights and Measures help the NCWM develop
specific testing procedures and protocols for enforcing
the relevant laws, regulations and codes, but it often is
NIST that develops and maintains the ultimate measurement
standards to which all others are traced. The accuracy of
a set of standard weights that a local inspector might
carry with him to a fruit vendor, for example, is
ultimately traceable to NIST's standard kilogram made out
of an iridium alloy.
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