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Measurement:Units

From AOWIS
Revision as of 17:47, 10 June 2026 by Samuel (talk | contribs)

AOWIS systems, components, and data models MUST use the International System of Units (SI) as the canonical unit system.[1][2]

SI is the globally accepted standard for scientific and technical measurement and is defined and maintained by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM).[3]

Requirements

REQ-MEAS-001: All AOWIS compliant systems MUST use SI units for (among others) all data models, storage formats, exchanged datasets, configuration files and inter-system mechanisms between AOWIS-compliant systems.

REQ-MEAS-002: Implementations MUST produce results that are numerically consistent with SI-based processing.

REQ-MEAS-003: Implementations MUST NOT introduce conversion artifacts, rounding errors, or precision loss that alter the meaning of numerical values.

REQ-MEAS-004: Any interfaces to/from non-AOWIS compliant systems need to convert between unit systems before/after sending/receiving numerical values from AOWIS compliant systems.

REQ-MEAS-005: User interfaces MUST clearly indicate the SI-unit associated with every displayed value.





Non-SI unit systems MAY be used for user input and display purposes, provided that:

  • All input values MUST be internally converted to SI units for storage and processing
  • The original input unit MUST be preserved as metadata where applicable
  • The system MUST clearly indicate the unit associated with every displayed value
  • If multiple unit systems are displayed, SI units MUST be clearly identifiable as the primary reference
  • Conversion between unit systems MUST be deterministic and consistent across implementations
  • User interfaces MAY support alternative unit systems (e.g. imperial units), but SI units remain the authoritative representation within AOWIS.

Requirements

REQ-MEAS-UNIT-010 — All user interfaces MUST display measurement values in SI units as the primary canonical representation.

REQ-MEAS-UNIT-011 — If a user provides input in a non-SI unit (where supported), the system MUST convert the value to SI units for internal processing and display the SI value as the primary result.

REQ-MEAS-UNIT-012 — If a non-SI input unit is provided by the user, the system MUST also display the original user-provided value as secondary information, clearly labeled with its unit and explicitly marked as user-provided input (origin data).

REQ-MEAS-UNIT-013 — The SI-converted value MUST be visually and semantically distinguished as the authoritative representation of the measurement.

REQ-MEAS-UNIT-014 — The original user-provided value MUST NOT be used for calculations, control decisions, or storage without conversion to SI units.

REQ-MEAS-UNIT-015 — Unit ambiguity MUST NOT exist in any displayed measurement; each displayed value MUST have an explicitly stated unit.


* REQ-MEAS-UNIT-001 — All stored measurement values MUST use SI units as the canonical representation.
* REQ-MEAS-UNIT-002 — Non-SI input values MUST be converted to SI units before storage or processing.
* REQ-MEAS-UNIT-003 — The original input unit MUST be preserved as metadata when provided.
* REQ-MEAS-UNIT-004 — Systems MUST ensure that every displayed measurement value has an explicitly defined unit.
* REQ-MEAS-UNIT-005 — SI units MUST be identifiable as the authoritative reference in all multi-unit displays.
* REQ-MEAS-UNIT-006 — Unit conversions MUST be deterministic and consistent across implementations.
* REQ-MEAS-UNIT-007 — UI-only display formats MUST NOT affect stored or transmitted canonical SI values.

References

  1. International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) — International System of Units (SI) https://www.bipm.org/en/measurement-units/si-base-units
  2. NIST — The International System of Units (SI) https://www.nist.gov/pml/owm/metric-si/si-units
  3. Wikipedia — International System of Units https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_System_of_Units