ABSTRACT
The existence of deliberate alloys of copper with lead for small ornaments and alloys of copper with varying amounts of tin for a wide variety of bronzes implies an ability to make accurate measurements with a weighing device ca. 3000 B.C. and perhaps earlier. The customer must pay the asked price, the measurement process merely determining how much the total transaction will be. If a measurement process requirement can be completely specified, one can devise a plan that will reduce a complex measurement to a simple operational routine. The mechanism for verifying specification compliance is created for the most part by those who do not fully understand either the measurement or the function. By international agreement, the SI-defined measurement units together with a substantial group of auxiliary units have replaced and augmented the original three — length, mass, and volume — of the metric system.
