Toward the next Edition of the International Vocabulary of Metrology

The International Vocabulary of Metrology (VIM) is presently available in its 3rd Edition (2012) (VIM3). VIM3 has been a major achievement, with numerous comments found in the literature concerning the assessment of it that will be taken here as references for future developments. The present paper is mainly based on the concept that such a Vocabulary is assumed to be of great help for practitioners in metrology, i.e., in general for people that must correctly apply the idiom of metrology according to the current meaning of its terms. The core of VIM3, i.e., its few basic terms, which are those currently used in metrology (defined according to the paper's Glossary), are identified, and their current meaning will be recalled together with the rationale of having chosen them. The Author's position will be given, as assuming that the Metrology Vocabulary is not supposed to be of much interest for the scientists whose activity already develops under the discipline of metrology, since they are supposed to be well-informed on its terminology. Rather, such a Vocabulary is assumed to be of great help for practitioners in metrology, i.e., in general for people that must correctly apply the idiom of metrology according to the current meaning of its terms. In addition, the International Vocabulary is assumed being used in every Country of the World, accounting for the need of easy and unambiguous translations in many different languages as much as possible, when the local metrological idioms may be expressed differently, which is a major difficulty. The core of VIM3, i.e. its main basic terms, which are those currently used in metrology, are identified as being: "Quantity" vs. "Amount", "Magnitude"; "Quantity" vs. "Property"; "Value" vs. "Scale". Their current meaning will be recalled, together with the rationale of having chosen them. The above-mentioned terms are compared with recently proposed changes for several of them, including some new terms to be introduced. The analysis will also account for the fact that, for the basic terms, any substantial change in their meaning, or the suppression of some of them, should be carefully pondered for being strictly necessary, because it may entail unnecessary confusion for many users. In fact, it is possible and reasonable that in other disciplines the same terms might express different concepts and express differently according to the specific idiom of those disciplines - e.g., according to an idiom basically originating from branches of philosophy of science or from set theory, where important differences in the meaning could be inappropriate or difficult to understand in measurement science, and in metrology particularly.