On-line industrial inspection of batch manufactured parts requires fast measurement techniques for surface finish quality. In order to develop the measurement basis for these techniques, a system has been built to determine surface roughness by measuring the angular distributions of scattered light. The system incorporates data gathered from the angular distribution instrument and traditional surface stylus instruments. These data are used both as input and as comparison data in order to test various mathematical models of optical scattering phenomena. The object is to develop a mathematical model that uses the angular distribution of scattered light to deduce surface roughness parameters such as Ra and surface wavelength. This paper describes the results of an experiment in which angular scattered data from surfaces with sinusoidal profiles was used to compute the surface R and wavelength. Stylus measurements of these parameters were made separately. A comparative table is given of the computed and measured values. Estimates of uncertainties are also given.