Another valuable lesson we may take from the faces of these indicating instruments is how uncertain the flow measurement becomes at the low end of the scale. Note how for each indicating instrument (both the receiver gauge and the meter movement), the square-root scale is “compressed” at the low end, to the point where it becomes impossible to interpret fine increments of flow at that end of the scale. At the high end of each scale, it’s a different situation entirely: the numbers
are spaced so far apart that it’s easy to read fine distinctions in flow values (e.g. 94% flow versus 95% flow). However, the scale is so crowded at the low end that it’s really impossible to clearly distinguish two different flow values such as 4% from 5%.