Minimum Energy Required for A Measurement

[Bret Cahill]

As with anything involving information or communication there is a
minimum amount of energy required for any measurement at a given
precision.

There may be several "minimums" depending on how idealized the
approach but in general the precision is proportional to the energy or
power consumed.

If you need to double the SNR then you'll need to double the energy
necessary for the measurement.

Has anyone done anything with this? It's hard to start a key word
search other than "measurement science."


Bret Cahill

 

[doug]

Bret Cahill wrote:

As with anything involving information or communication there is a
minimum amount of energy required for any measurement at a given
precision.

There may be several "minimums" depending on how idealized the
approach but in general the precision is proportional to the energy or
power consumed.

If you need to double the SNR then you'll need to double the energy
necessary for the measurement.

Has anyone done anything with this?

Yes. This is covered in electronics classes under "noise".

It's hard to start a key word

search other than "measurement science."


Bret Cahill

 

[whit3rd]

On Oct 20, 11:29 am, Bret Cahill <BretCah...@aol.com> wrote:

As with anything involving information or communication there is a
minimum amount of energy required for any measurement at a given
precision.

"Information is Physical" makes a good search string; it's dry stuff,
though, relating the storage of a new number to entropy produced
when the 'old' number is, necessarily, erased.

 

[Bret Cahill]

As with anything involving information or communication there is a
minimum amount of energy required for any measurement at a given
precision.

"Information is Physical" makes a good search string; it's dry stuff,
though, relating the storage of a new number to entropy produced
when the 'old' number is, necessarily, erased.

I was just interested in measurement theory.


Bret Cahill

 

[Tom Potter]

"Bret Cahill" <BretCahill@aol.com> wrote in message
news:8cb876ff-ed47-40ee-ac6d-a2e881a414c9@b3g2000pre.googlegroups.com...

As with anything involving information or communication there is a
minimum amount of energy required for any measurement at a given
precision.

There may be several "minimums" depending on how idealized the
approach but in general the precision is proportional to the energy or
power consumed.

If you need to double the SNR then you'll need to double the energy
necessary for the measurement.

Has anyone done anything with this? It's hard to start a key word
search other than "measurement science."


Bret Cahill

There is no minimum amount of energy required to make a measurement.
but there is a minimum amount of action required to make a measurement.

To make a measurement or observation,
at least one unit of action must be exchanged
between the observer and the observed.

The unit of circular action is one perfect cycle,
and the unit of linear action is one perfect cycle divided by 2 pi.

Action is commonly multiplied by Planck's Constant
in order to equate cycles to units associated
with the particular standard used.

The most fundamental unit in the universe is the cycle,
and the most fundamental unit of difference is the cycle ratio.

Time is a count of cycles associated with some point
compared to other points.

Space is a count of the cycles associated
with the point one uses as a time reference,
associate with intervals between two other points.

Space cycle counts are commonly multiplied
by a constant "c" in order to express the space
in politically established units, such as a King's body parts.

Mass is the physical property used to
express the amount of mass at one point,
with respect to another point.

For example, the mass of the Sun is used
as the primary reference in expressing mass ratios
in the Solar System, and on the Earth,
this in turn is referenced to some politicallly determined mass reference
such as the number of seeds or some homogeneous matter
having some standard dimensions that are referenced
to the aforementioned space units.

Ultimately, times, spaces and masses
will be referenced to the "Great Divide",
which can be referenced to an initial perfect sphere
that began to divide about 15 billion years ago.
( Years referenced to cycles associate with the point "Sun"
at the present time, which will be referenced to more fundamental
cycles associated with the "Great Divide" ( Planck's Constant").

--
Tom Potter
http://tdp1001.spaces.live.com
http://www.tompotter.us/misc.html
http://webspace.webring.com/people/st/tdp1001
http://notsocrazyideas.blogspot.com
http://tdp1001.wiki.zoho.com
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