It may be the beginning of the acquaintance, but you are
hardly, in your thoughts, advanced towards science, whatever the
subject may be."
It has now become possible to measure exactly the elements which enter
into nearly all physical phenomena, and these measurements are taken
with ever increasing precision. Every time a chapter in science
progresses, science shows itself more exacting; it perfects its means
of investigation, it demands more and more exactitude, and one of the
most striking features of modern physics is this constant care for
strictness and clearness in experimentation.
A veritable science of measurement has thus been constituted which
extends over all parts of the domain of physics. This science has its
rules and its methods; it points out the best processes of
calculation, and teaches the method of correctly estimating errors and
taking account of them. It has perfected the processes of experiment,
co-ordinated a large number of results, and made possible the
unification of standards. It is thanks to it that the system of
measurements unanimously adopted by physicists has been formed.
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