Linear it y

Linearity is defined as the deviation of an ins trum ents perform ance from the ideal s traight line relations hip between the ins trum ents output and the m eas ured variable. Linearity s hould not be confus ed with accuracy, repeatability, s ens itivity or res olution. Linearity of an ins trum ent is m ore im portant when it is being us ed in a m eas urem ent application than it is in a control application - es pecially where the controller is us ed to control at a s ingle fixed s et point. Many m odern electronic ins trum ents attem pt to correct for non-linearity of the s ens ors us ed with them . However, the m ere fact that a correction is applied can degrade the accuracy and repeatability of the m eas urem ent. It is not always preferable to us e a linear ins trum ent, for exam ple m any electrochem ical reactions follow a s em i-logarithm ic law and this allows m any analys ers to m eas ure the variable over s everal decades of concentration (i.e. have a m eas uring range of 1000 to 1 (3 decades ), 10,000 to 1 (4 decades ) etc.). In s om e applications the us e of non-linear s cales als o enables the norm ally us ed part of the s cale to be expanded to provide im proved accuracy and readability.

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