Instrument may refer to:

Science and technology

Flight instruments Flight instruments are the instruments in the cockpit of an aircraft that provide the pilot with data about the flight situation of that aircraft, such as altitude, airspeed, vertical speed, heading and much more other crucial information in f ...

, the devices used to measure the speed, altitude, and pertinent flight angles of various kinds of aircraft *

Laboratory equipment A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratory services are provided in a variety of settings: physicia ...

, the measuring tools used in a scientific laboratory, often electronic in nature *

Mathematical instrument A mathematical instrument is a tool or device used in the study or practice of mathematics. In geometry, construction of various proofs was done using only a compass and straightedge; arguments in these proofs relied only on idealized properties ...

, devices used in geometric construction or measurements in astronomy, surveying and navigation *

Measuring instrument A measuring instrument is a device to measure a physical quantity. In the physical sciences, quality assurance, and engineering, measurement is the activity of obtaining and comparing physical quantities of real-world objects and events. Est ...

, a device used to measure or compare physical properties *

Medical instrument A medical device is any device intended to be used for medical purposes. Significant potential for hazards are inherent when using a device for medical purposes and thus medical devices must be proved safe and effective with reasonable assura ...

, a device used to diagnose or treat diseases *

Optical instrument An optical instrument (or "optic" for short) is a device that processes light waves (or photons), either to enhance an image for viewing or to analyze and determine their characteristic properties. Common examples include periscopes, microscopes, ...

, relies on the properties of light *

Quantum instrument In physics, a quantum instrument is a mathematical abstraction of a quantum measurement, capturing both the classical and quantum outputs. It combines the concepts of measurement and quantum operation. It can be equivalently understood as a qu ...

, a mathematical object in quantum theory combining the concepts of measurement and quantum operation *

Scientific instrument A scientific instrument is a device or tool used for scientific purposes, including the study of both natural phenomena and theoretical research. History Historically, the definition of a scientific instrument has varied, based on usage, laws, an ...

, a device used to collect scientific data *

Surgical instrument A surgical instrument is a tool or device for performing specific actions or carrying out desired effects during a surgery or operation, such as modifying biological tissue, or to provide access for viewing it. Over time, many different kinds of ...

* Vehicle instrument, a device measuring parameters of a vehicle, such as its speed or position *

Weather instrument Meteorological instruments (or weather instruments), including meteorological sensors (weather sensors), are the equipment used to find the state of the atmosphere at a given time. Each science has its own unique sets of laboratory equipment. Met ...

, a device used to record aspects of the weather

Music

* Musical instrument, a device designed to produce musical sounds ** Experimental musical instrument **

Percussion instrument A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

, which is struck ** String instrument, uses vibrating strings **

Transposing instrument A transposing instrument is a musical instrument for which music notation is not written at concert pitch (concert pitch is the pitch on a non-transposing instrument such as the piano). For example, playing a written middle C on a transposing ...

, allows music to be played in a different key **

Wind instrument A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube) in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at or near the end of the resonator. The pitc ...

, which is blown *** Brass instrument, a sub type of wind instruments ***

Woodwind instrument Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments. Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and r ...

, another sub type * ''Instrument'' (album), by To Rococo Rot, 2014 * ''

Instrument Soundtrack ''Instrument Soundtrack'' is a 1999 album by American post-hardcore band Fugazi. Background It is a mainly instrumental soundtrack for the documentary ('' Instrument'') about the band produced by the band and filmmaker Jem Cohen. The soundtrac ...

'', 1999 album by American band Fugazi

Other uses

* ''Instrument'' (film), a documentary of the band Fugazi, directed by Jem Cohen *

Instruments (application) __FORCETOC__ Instruments (formerly Xray) is an application performance analyzer and visualizer, integrated in Xcode 3.0 and later versions of Xcode. It is built on top of the DTrace tracing framework from OpenSolaris, which was ported to Mac OS ...

, a performance visualizer *

Instrumental variable In statistics, econometrics, epidemiology and related disciplines, the method of instrumental variables (IV) is used to estimate causal relationships when controlled experiments are not feasible or when a treatment is not successfully delivered t ...

, a method used in statistics * Financial instrument, a formal documentation of a financial transaction *

Legal instrument Legal instrument is a legal term of art that is used for any formally executed written document that can be formally attributed to its author, records and formally expresses a legally enforceable act, process, or contractual duty, obligation, or ...

, a formal documentation of a status or transaction * Negotiable instrument, a type of contract * Statutory instrument, a form of legislation * Instrumental case, in linguistics, a grammatical case expressing the instrument by which an action is performed

Science and technology

Music

Other uses

See also