meetduur

Meetduur is a term used in measurement science and data collection to denote the duration of a measurement, i.e., the length of time over which observations are collected for a given variable. It defines the time window that constitutes a single measurement unit.

The term derives from Dutch, combining meten (to measure) and duur (duration). It is used primarily in Dutch-language technical writing and in domains where measurement windows are described, but it has no single universal standard across disciplines.

In practice, meetduur is set by the study design or instrument configuration. It interacts with sampling rate and data aggregation: a longer meetduur yields more data points within the window and typically lower variability for stationary signals, while a shorter meetduur improves temporal resolution and sensitivity to short-term changes but increases random noise and requires more frequent readings.

Applications include environmental monitoring (such as air quality or radiation monitoring), industrial process control, health and fitness wearables, and market research. Analysts select meetduur to balance precision, responsiveness, and data storage constraints, often using processes such as rolling or sliding windows to produce time-aligned series.

See also time window, observation window, sampling window, data window, rolling window.