Thermometers

Liquid in Glass and Thermocouple

Choosing a thermometer
Any physical property of matter that varies uniformly with
temperature can be the basis of a thermometer;
e.g. expansion of a liquid, Volume of a gas, resistance of a metal,
change in e.m.f
When choosing a thermometer, there are some features to
consider:

Range-The range is limited by the freezing and boiling points of

liquid.
For mercury thermometer: -39 to 357C
For alcohol-in-glass thermometer: -115 to 78C
In colder countries, most of its liquid-in-glass thermometers use
alcohol and not mercury.
 The range can be increased by lengthening the bore.
Range is the converse of sensitivity, i.e., the longer the
range, the lower is its sensitivity. Factors that increase
range would at the same time reduce its sensitivity
Logically, a laboratory thermometer should have a larger
range than a clinical thermometer.
Typically, the range of a laboratory thermometer is -100C
- 110 oC while the range of a clinical thermometer is 35 -
43 0C.
Why Mercury? Other substances expand a lot more when
heated:
Mercury expands quite uniformly over a good range of
temperatures.
To increase range:
(a) make the thermometer stem longer
(b) make the bore(capillary) bigger
(c) use a liquid with a lower expansivity

Responsiveness-It refers to how fast the thermometer can

respond to the temperature changes and register the new reading.
(How fast the liquid heats up or cools)
A clinical thermometer should be rather responsive.
No patient or doctor wants to wait for 10 minutes to read their
temperature!
The responsiveness of a thermometer is affected by:

size of the bulb

thickness of the bulb wall
 Logically the larger the bulb, the less responsive it is, since
there is more liquid in the larger bulb.
Also, bulb walls are usually made to be thin so that
conduction of heat energy can occur as quickly as possible
Sensitivity-A sensitive thermometer has better precision.
It can read precisely to smaller units of temperature.

It is affected by: (a) the diameter of the bore

(b) The liquid used
Since thermometer B has a thinner bore, more precise
calibration can be made on its scale.
The sensitivity of thermometer B is 10C while sensitivity of
thermometer A is 20C.
Can you think of any advantage (s) of:
Size
Durability
Cost

The thermometer is made relatively small so that it is

portable and cheap.
The liquid is contained in a thin-walled glass bulb. The
bulb is made relatively larger than its bore to contain
more of the liquid, so as to improve sensitivity.
The narrow bore of the capillary tube is uniform. The
round glass stem around the capillary tube is made thick.
It acts as a magnifying glass.
Clinical Thermometer
Clinical thermometer is a slight modification of mercury
thermometer. It is specially designed to measure the
human body temperature
Thermocouple Thermometers
 In 1821, the German physicist Thomas Johann Seebeck discovered that
when different metals are joined at the ends and there is a
temperature difference between the joints a magnetic field is
observed.
The magnetic field was later found to be an electric current that was
proportional to the temperature difference between the ends of the
junction.
Advantages:
Easy to read, has clear screen and good scale.
Quick response for any temperature changes.(Rapidly changing
temperature
Has precision accuracy in temperature measurement.
Good to be used in temperature variation measurement with below 1
cm distance range. Can measure in excess of 1600 0C based on metals
used
Thermocouple is not easily broken. Good durability