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Equation 4 · Part 5 · How Scientific Instruments and Metrology Actually Work

Symbol f

uc2(y)=∑i=1N(∂f∂xi)2u2(xi)  +  2∑i=1N−1∑j=i+1N∂f∂xi∂f∂xj u(xi,xj)u_c^2(y) = \sum_{i=1}^{N} \left(\frac{\partial f}{\partial x_i}\right)^2 u^2(x_i) \;+\; 2\sum_{i=1}^{N-1}\sum_{j=i+1}^{N} \frac{\partial f}{\partial x_i}\frac{\partial f}{\partial x_j}\, u(x_i, x_j)
ff

What this part means

f occurs above the fraction bar. The numerator is divided by the entire denominator below it.

Its job in the formula

f occurs above the fraction bar. The numerator is divided by the entire denominator below it.

The passage around this formula

…its own estimated standard uncertainty, and then to propagate those uncertainties through the mathematical relationship that produces the final result. If a measurement result y is a function of N input quantities, y = f(x1x_1, x2x_2, …\ldots, xNx_N) , the combined standard uncertainty is obtained from a first-order Taylor expansion of that function: uc2(y)=∑i=1N(∂f∂xi)2u2(xi)  +  2∑i=1N−1∑j=i+1N∂f∂xi∂f∂xj u(xi,xj)u_c^2(y) = \sum_{i=1}^{N} \left(\frac{\partial f}{\partial x_i}\right)^2 u^2(x_i) \;+\; 2\sum_{i=1}^{N-1}\sum_{j=i+1}^{N} \frac{\partial f}{\partial x_i}\frac{\partial f}{\partial x_j}\, u(x_i, x_j). The first sum is the familiar root-sum-of-squares combination of independent contributions, each weighted by how sensitive the final result is to that…

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Learn the underlying idea

A variable is a named place for a value. Its letter is a local label: x can mean position in one formula and a data point in another.

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Sources cited in the surrounding passage

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