Figure of merit

Short description: Numeric statement of performance

A figure of merit (FOM) is a performance metric that characterizes the performance of a device, system, or method, relative to its alternatives.[1][2]

## Examples

* Absolute alcohol content per currency unit in an alcoholic beverage
* Accuracy of a rifle[3]
* Audio amplifier figures of merit such as gain or efficiency
* Battery life of a laptop computer[4]
* Calories per serving
* Clock rate of a CPU is often given as a figure of merit, but is of limited use in comparing between different architectures. FLOPS may be a better figure, though these too are not completely representative of the performance of a CPU.
* Contrast ratio of an LCD
* Frequency response of a speaker
* Fill factor of a solar cell
* Resolution of the image sensor in a digital camera
* Measure of the detection performance of a sonar system, defined as the propagation loss for which a 50% detection probability is achieved
* Noise figure of a radio receiver
* The thermoelectric figure of merit, zT, a material constant proportional to the efficiency of a thermoelectric couple made with the material
* The figure of merit of digital-to-analog converter, calculated as (power dissipation)/(2ENOB × effective bandwidth) [J/Hz]
* Luminous efficacy of lighting
* Profit of a company
* Residual noise remaining after compensation in an aeromagnetic survey
* Heat absorption and transfer quality for a solar cooker
* Performance of transparent conducting thin-film materials, such as FTO, calculated as (transparency)10/(surface resistivity)

Computational benchmarks are synthetic figures of merit that summarize the speed of algorithms or computers in performing various typical tasks.

## References

1. ↑ Olivieri, Alejandro C.; Escandar, Graciela M. (2014), "Analytical Figures of Merit" (in en), Practical Three-Way Calibration (Elsevier): pp. 93–107, doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-410408-2.00006-5, ISBN 978-0-12-410408-2, https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/B9780124104082000065, retrieved 2022-03-24
2. ↑ Allegrini, Franco; Olivieri, Alejandro C. (2020), "Figures of Merit" (in en), Comprehensive Chemometrics (Elsevier): pp. 441–463, doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-409547-2.14612-8, ISBN 978-0-444-64166-3, https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/B9780124095472146128, retrieved 2022-03-24
3. ↑ Minshall, David. "Measuring Accuracy". http://www.researchpress.co.uk/index.php/firearms/british-military-longarms/small-arms-trials/measuring-accuracy.
4. ↑ Decoding Battery Life For Laptops New York Times, June 25, 2009

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