Warning
Not to be confused with meteorology, which is the scientific study of atmospheric phenomena.
Metrology is the scientific study of measurement, usually having a focus on maintaining the standard conventions of established units (the SI units).
International efforts have resulted in the definition of several critical units that have been in use in everyday life; for example:
- time (seconds) is currently defined in terms of the radiation frequency at which cesium atoms change from one state to another; and
- mass (kilograms) is currently defined by Plank’s constant, a fundamental physical constant.
Metrology has a focus around maintaining the stability and accuracy of the units, and efforts are made to discover new methods of achieving the measurement of such units in more stable and accurate ways.