Comment by 0cf8612b2e1e
4 days ago
Now I am wondering are there any industrial processes that use a common commercial product as a standard?
Coke, Guinness, etc all probably have exquisite quality control. Is it in the manual of any equipment, “congratulations on your new FooBar pH meter. To confirm the correct operation, a CokeCola should give a reading of X”
The government has reference products that a lot of processes use. https://shop.nist.gov/ccrz__ProductList?categoryId=a0l3d0000...
one that gets mentioned occasionally on the internet is the peanut butter: https://shop.nist.gov/ccrz__ProductDetails?sku=2387
To go down that rathole, here is Tom Scott talking about the NIST standard reference materials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvJzi0BXcGI
I was more imagining a completely pedestrian sourced sample. Those are likely large aggregate pools to minimize heterogeneity. Looking for something like, “Go to corner store, buy 12 pack canned CokeCola (with aspartame), dilute 1:10, measure”
Coincidentally, Guinness had a role to play in the development of modern quality control.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Sealy_Gosset
Some of the most dimensionally accurate thickness aluminium foil you can buy is intended for cooking.
This ISO amuses me:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3103
Do we count the time some children measured the vitamin C in Ribena for a science fair, and discovered there wasn't any, despite high vitamin C being their main marketing point?
I just looked that up. Great story!