Analysis and comparison of Bayesian methods for type A uncertainty evaluation with prior knowledge

Abstract

If a number of observations about a certain quantity may be assumed independent, drawn from a Gaussian distribution, Supplement 1 to the GUM recommends that the standard uncertainty associated with the quantity be obtained by a formula that is applied to more than three observations. Various articles have recently appeared proposing Bayesian methods to surmount this limitation. Some of these methods, which require prior knowledge about the quantity, are reviewed in this article.