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. Laboratories are found in a variety of settings such as schools, u ...

, 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 properti ...

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

Measuring instrument Instrumentation is a collective term for measuring instruments, used for indicating, measuring, and recording physical quantities. It is also a field of study about the art and science about making measurement instruments, involving the related ...

, 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 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, telescopes, and camera ...

, relies on the properties of light *

Quantum instrument In quantum physics, a quantum instrument is a mathematical description of a quantum measurement, capturing both the classical and quantum outputs. It can be equivalently understood as a quantum channel that takes as input a quantum system and has ...

, 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 medical 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 vehicle instrument is an instrument that measures some parameters in the vehicle, often found on its control panel or dashboard. Types *Speedometer *Tachometer *Odometer * Trip odometer * Oil pressure gauge * Coolant Temperature gauge * Bat ...

, a device measuring parameters of a vehicle, such as its speed or position * Weather instrument, a device used to record aspects of the weather

Music

Musical instrument A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make Music, musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person ...

, 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 percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

, which is struck **

String instrument In musical instrument classification, string instruments, or chordophones, are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer strums, plucks, strikes or sounds the strings in varying manners. Musicians play some ...

, 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 pitch ...

, which is blown ***

Brass instrument A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by Sympathetic resonance, sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. The term ''labrosone'', from Latin elements meani ...

, 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 ...

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

Instrument Soundtrack ''Instrument Soundtrack'' is a 1999 soundtrack album by American post-hardcore band Fugazi. It serves as the score for Jem Cohen’s documentary film '' Instrument'', which follows the band. Background It is a mainly instrumental soundtrack for ...

'', 1999 album by American band Fugazi *

Instrument 1 The Instrument 1 (sometimes stylised in all caps) is a MIDI controller designed by Artiphon, a Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville-based music technology Startup company, startup. The device was conceptualised in 2011 by Mike Butera, a fiddle play ...

, a MIDI controller designed by Artiphon

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 by Apple Inc., integrated in Xcode 3.0 and later versions of Xcode. It is built on top of the DTrace tracing framework from OpenSolaris, which was ...

, 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 to ...

, a method used in statistics *

Financial instrument Financial instruments are monetary contracts between parties. They can be created, traded, modified and settled. They can be cash (currency), evidence of an ownership, interest in an entity or a contractual right to receive or deliver in the form ...

, a formal documentation of a financial transaction *

Legal instrument Legal instrument is a law, 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 ...

, a formal documentation of a status or transaction *

Negotiable instrument A negotiable instrument is a document guaranteeing the payment of a specific amount of money, either on demand, or at a set time, whose payer is usually named on the document. More specifically, it is a document contemplated by or consisting of a ...

, a type of contract * Statutory instrument, a form of legislation *

Instrumental case In grammar, the instrumental case ( abbreviated or ) is a grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the ''instrument'' or means by or with which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action. The noun may be either a physical object or ...

, in linguistics, a grammatical case expressing the instrument by which an action is performed

Science and technology

Music

Other uses

See also