Why do results obtained by different investigators characteristically disagree by more than would be expected by their estimates of uncertainty? Youden notes that everything gets changed in another laboratory, whereas the investigator can (or does) make only minor changes within his laboratory. The message of this paper—that only those bounds for uncertainty based on actual measurement will endure—is already beginning to have an impact on physical measurement. Designed experiments to estimate bounds to systematic error will replace fallible judgment based on feelings and not observation.
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W. J. Youden (1972) studied this question.
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