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Denis LOUVEL: Metrology Manager, Mettler-Toledo SAS
INTRODUCTION
Metrologically assessing the quantity of matter in a body has always been a necessity of the utmost importance, both in economic exchanges and in scientific, technical and industrial activities.
A fairly easily quantifiable characteristic is the effort required to lift a material body, i.e. to measure the force of gravity to which it is subjected, its weight.
The weight of a body varies with the intensity of the gravitational field, acting in accordance with Newton's law of universal attraction, and therefore depends on where it is measured, since the Earth's surface is an ellipsoidal geoid.
The weight of a body is also directly proportional to its gravitational coefficient m, its mass.
Mass is an intrinsic quantity, representative of a body, constant in space, independent of its location and the forces to which it is subjected.
In everyday life, little attention is paid to the concepts developed above. Moreover, common language, even when codified and regulated, maintains an unfortunate confusion between the notion of weight and the notion of mass, all the more so as the word "weight" is also used to designate material objects with certain regulatory characteristics – shape, constitution, material, dimension, inscription of the mass value and legal unit – intended for weighing operations, i.e. mass measurement.
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Weighing
Mass measurement
Regulations
European Directive 2014/31/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of February 26, 2014 on the harmonization of the laws of the Member States relating to the making available on the market of non-automatic weighing instruments (OJEU of March 29, 2014).
European Directive No. 90/384/EEC of June 20, 1990 on the harmonization of the laws of the Member States relating to non-automatic weighing...
Statistical and economic data
1. Standards
A working standard can be either a weight or a standard mass.
Weight is a legally marked mass; its shape (dimensions), composition (material), nominal value, maximum permissible error and marking are regulated.
A marked mass is a material object used to determine the mass of a body. A marked mass is not required to meet...
Standards and norms
European standard ( http://www.afnor.fr )
- Aspects métrologiques des instruments de pesage à fonctionnement non automatique. - NF EN 45501 - 2015
- Critères généraux pour le fonctionnement des différents types d'organismes procédant à l'inspection. - NF EN ISO/CEI 17020...
International standards
Directory
Bureau de la métrologie (part of the Ministry of the Economy, Industry and the Digital Economy and the General Directorate for Enterprise)
http://www.entreprises.gouv.fr/metrologie/
International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML)
...Websites
EUROPA, European Union server
Official Journal of the European Union
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