What is the difference between a measurement and a calculation?

Question

What is the difference between a measurement and a calculation?

Answer 1

A measurement is a quantitative observation, whereas a calculation is a process of arriving at a desired value through a series of arithmetic operations.

For example, I have a glass aquarium and a tape measure.  I want to know how many gallons of water I will need to fill the aquarium.

When I use the tape measure to measure the length, width, and depth of the aquarium, that is measurement.

When I use a pencil and paper to multiply the length times the width times the depth to get the cubic volume, that is a calculation.  Then when I divide the cubic volume by the number of gallons per cubic foot, that is another calculation.

If this is not clear, ask your teacher.

Answer 2

A calculation is just the arithmetic, although you may be working from results obtained by measurement.  A measurement is a quantitative observation of something in the world.