Speaker
Description
Measurement uncertainty is a key concept of measurement, and while the scientific literature is full of discussion about its meaning and methods of quantitative determination, this literature presents difficulties in characterizing it unambiguously. In particular, measurement uncertainty is often related to various categories of concepts which refer to different ideas: for instance, accuracy and error, reliability and confidence, belief and knowledge.
Based on two topics of study, the recent history of statistical methods of uncertainty analysis in metrology, and the history of the adjustments of the fundamental physical constants, I wish to explore some critical methodological and epistemological frictions that typically accompany the developments about the management of measurement uncertainties. These frictions ultimately relate to the nature of the claim that is made when writing down a measurement result, and in particular, about the objective or subjective status of such a claim.
This exploration will enable me in particular to reflect on some typical methodological issues tackled within the Proton Radius Puzzle, which appear to be the continuation of a tension that has run through the adjustments of the physical constants since its foundations were laid by Raymond T. Birge in 1929, and which, precisely, offers us somes clues to better understand how measurement uncertainty is interpreted in the context of precision physics.
