ABSTRACT
Innumerable measurements are made everyday with countless instruments. The field of measurement, instrumentation, and laboratory means different things to different people in our pluralistic society. This chapter discusses the roles of measurement, instrumentation, and laboratory. Measurement is the common thread that runs through the fabric of all science and engineering. The chapter briefly relates measurement and experimentation to the development of science, research, engineering design, and the manufacture of goods. Measurement and experimentation can also be justified on their own merits. The sensing process is a boundary problem, since the interaction between the sensor and its environment must occur at an interface. The corollary is that the environment for the sensor must be designed for the sensor to detect the measurand correctly. The laboratory in engineering education is a broad subject and somewhat controversial regarding both content and approach.
