1.

REVIEW OF
DEFINITIONS

22/02/2023
Lecturer: noelia.martinezrey@anu.edu.au
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2 ANU RESEARCH SCHOOL OF PHYSICS | PHYS3711/6711 – LECTURE 1 22 FEB 23

00 LECTURE OUTLINE
• THE UNITS SYSTEM
• THE IMPORTANCE OF UNITS
• DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS
• ACCURACY AND PRECISION
• TOLERANCE
• REPEATIBILITY AND REPRODUCIBILITY
• RANGE
• LINEARITY
• HYSTERESIS
• SENSITIVITY AND THRESHOLD
• DRIFT AND BIAS
• RESOLUTION AND SAMPLING

3 ANU RESEARCH SCHOOL OF PHYSICS | PHYS3711/6711 – LECTURE 1 22 FEB 23

01 THE UNITS SYSTEM
The Royal Cubit: length of the forearm
from the elbow to the tip of the middle
finger plus the width of the palm of the
Pharaoh ruling at the time.

The Great Pyramid of Giza is constructed

with sides of 440 cubits (230.364 meters).
Using cubit sticks, the builders were within
11.4 cm – an accuracy better than 0.05%.

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01 THE UNITS SYSTEM: THE S.I.

Credit: dewetron.com

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01 THE UNITS SYSTEM:
IMPERIAL AND METRIC

The S.I units is a strict adhesion to

the metric system core units:
(m/s and not km/h)

Imperial units have multiple units

for the same quantity.

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01 THE UNITS SYSTEM:
IMPERIAL AND METRIC

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01 THE IMPORTANCE OF UNITS
Mars Climate Orbiter: In 1999,
NASA lost a $125 million Mars
orbiter because of a mix-up
between metric and English units.
One team used metric units, while
the other team used English units,
causing the spacecraft to come too
close to the surface of Mars and
be destroyed.

Credit:  Slideplayer.com)

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01 THE IMPORTANCE OF UNITS
Hubble Space Telescope: In 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched with a
flawed mirror that caused blurry images. The error was traced to a problem with the
measurement of the mirror's curvature due to miscalibrated equipment.

Credit: NASA
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01 DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS
Atmospheric seeing is a measure of the blurring of astronomical images caused by turbulence in
Earth's atmosphere. It is typically quantified using a parameter called the full-width at half-
maximum (FWHM) of the point spread function (PSF) of the image.

The FWHM of the PSF can be related to various parameters describing the atmosphere, such as the
turbulence strength, the refractive index structure constant, and the velocity of the air.

FWHM = 0.98 * lambda / r0

Using dimensional analysis, find out the dimensions of the refractive index structure constant
(Cn2):

r0 = 0.423 * (k2 * Cn2 * L0) (-3/5)

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 EXAMPLE: ADAPTIVE OPTICS
'The Starry Night’ by V. Van Gogh

Credit: CSIRO
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EXAMPLE: ADAPTIVE OPTICS
Infra-red images of a star, from Lick Observatory adaptive optics system
Credits: Claire Max. CfAO Summer School 2017

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EXAMPLE: ADAPTIVE OPTICS

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02 ACCURACY VS PRECISION
Accuracy (measurement uncertainty): How close the output reading of an
instrument is to the correct value. Often listed as a %

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02 ACCURACY VS PRECISION
Accuracy (measurement uncertainty): How close the output reading of an
instrument is to the correct value. Often listed as a %

Measurement accuracy: 97.9%

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02 ACCURACY VS PRECISION
Tolerance: Same definition but
applicable to component
manufacture

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02 ACCURACY VS PRECISION
Tolerance: Same definition but Aberration thickness (t):
applicable to component 5 µm ± 0.9 µm
manufacture
Phase Shift = 2π(n / λ) * t

What is the error

introduced by the
manufacturing tolerance
of the phase screen?
n = 1.5
𝝺 = 500 nm

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02 ACCURACY VS PRECISION
Precision: degree of
freedom from random
error

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02 ACCURACY VS PRECISION
Repeatability: closeness of output reading when the same input is applied in the same
measurement conditions, same instrument and observer.

Reproducibility: closeness of output for the same output but with different conditions,
instrument and observer.

Credit: CreativeCommons

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03 RANGE AND LINEARITY
Range or span defines the minimum and
maximum values of the quantity that the
instrument is designed to measure.
OPTION A OPTION B

Which option would

you choose?
Credit: Wikipedia

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03 RANGE AND LINEARITY
Non-linearity is defined as the maximum deviation of any output readings from a straight
line. It is usually expressed as a percentage of full-scale reading.

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03 RANGE AND LINEARITY
Non-linearity is defined as the maximum deviation of any output readings from a straight
line. It is usually expressed as a percentage of full-scale reading.

Credit: CfAO

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04 HYSTERESIS

Hysteresis is the phenomenon in which the

value of a physical property lags behind
changes in the effect causing it, as for instance
when magnetic induction lags behind the
magnetizing force.

Expressed as a percentage of linear range.

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05 SENSITIVITY AND
THRESHOLD
Sensitivity is a measure of change in
instrument output as a function of change of
the quantity being measured

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05 SENSITIVITY AND
THRESHOLD
Sensitivity Responsivity is a measure of
change in instrument output as a function of
change of the quantity being measured

Credit: Thorlabs

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05 SENSITIVITY AND
THRESHOLD
Threshold is the minimum level of signal required to output a reading large enough
to be detected

What would be
the threshold of
this photodiode?

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06 DRIFT AND BIAS
Drift and bias are respectively the change
of slope and offset in the sensitivity of an
instrument in different conditions

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 07

Credit: CSIRO Credit: Subaru

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 07

RESOLUTION SAMPLING

Credit: CSIRO Credit: Subaru

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07 RESOLUTION
Resolution: lower limit on the magnitude of
the change in the input measured quantity
that produces an observation change in the
instrument.

What would be the resolution of

the Subaru telescope in the
visible? And what does it mean?
θ = 1.22 λ/D

Credit: CSIRO
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08 SAMPLING
Sampling: process of
converting a continuous-time
signal into a discrete-time
signal by measuring the
amplitude of the signal at
regular intervals of time.

Credit: Subaru

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WHAT’S NEXT:
TUTORIAL: Thursday 23/Feb 10am -11am
Selection of COTS for an AO system based on requirements
and tolerance analysis.

+ ASSIGNMENT due Wed 1/Mar

21/02/2023
Lecturer: noelia.martinezrey@anu.edu.au