Measuring section
The linear sequence of measuring points in order to record the local course of a physical phenomenon or a geometric shape is referred to as a measuring profile or measuring section (previously also called measuring section ) . Such measurements are mainly carried out in technical and natural sciences.
A second meaning of the term is the route (beeline, sight ) along which an exact distance measurement is made.
If an area measurement is to be made instead of a profile , either intersecting routes are created or the area is driven in a meandering manner.
The evaluation of measurement profiles can be done in different ways:
- geometrical: by drawing a diagram (measurement curve) and visual interpretation
- Averaging of all measurements and determination of how far the individual measurements deviate from the mean
- linear regression : calculation of a linear trend (rise or fall of the measurement curve)
- quadratic regression: trend and curvature of the measurement curve
- Fourier analysis or FFT : Analysis of periods in the measurement curve
- 2D - model calculation : approximate model of the phenomenon and its specific adaptation to the areally distributed measurements
- 3D model: interpretation of the measured values in the third dimension (e.g. into the interior of a solid or into the depths of the earth's crust).
Examples for the creation of measuring sections are:
- in geodesy and photogrammetry the measurement of terrain profiles
- in mechanical engineering and industry the detection of the shape of workpieces
- In geophysics, magnetic or seismic profiles for underground research ( geomagnetics and reflection seismics )
- In geology, profiles for recording the type of rock and its stratification
- in meteorology vertical profiles of air temperature or air pressure (radiosondes)
- in navigation to calibrate the airspeed indicator ( running miles , dead reckoning) or radio navigation .