Editing Measurement (section)

=== Theory ===
All data are inexact and statistical in nature.  Thus the definition of measurement is: "A set of observations that reduce uncertainty where the result is expressed as a quantity."<ref>Douglas Hubbard: "How to Measure Anything", Wiley (2007), p. 21</ref>  This definition is implied in what scientists actually do when they measure something and report both the [[mean]] and [[statistics]] of the measurements.  In practical terms, one begins with an initial guess as to the expected value of a quantity, and then, using various methods and instruments, reduces the uncertainty in the value.  In this view, unlike the [[positivist]] representational theory, all measurements are uncertain, so instead of assigning one value, a range of values is assigned to a measurement.  This also implies that there is not a clear or neat distinction between [[Approximation|estimation]] and measurement.