null method

noun

1. a method of measurement using an electrical device, as a Wheatstone bridge, in which the quantity to be measured is balanced by an opposing known quantity that is varied until the resultant of the two is zero.

Word History and Origins

Origin of null method¹

First recorded in 1870–75

Example Sentences

When properly adjusted this instrument can be used for the exact comparison of electric currents by a null method, because if an electric current is passed through one wire and creates certain deflexions of the needle, the current which annuls this deflexion when passed through the other wire must be equal to the first current.

From Project Gutenberg