Ch.

1 Temperature and Thermometers

1) Measuring temperature

2) The Celsius temperature scale

Prepared by
Ch.1 Temperature and Thermometers

1.1 Measuring temperature

Temperature

Temperature is the measurement of the degree of ______________________ of a substance. Any property that

changes with hotness can be used to make a temperature scale to indicate temperature.

We need a ___________________________ to measure the temperature of object. ________________________( )

is a commonly used unit of temperature.

Thermometers

A liquid-in-glass thermometer contains a bulb

connected to a narrow glass tube, as temperature

increases, the liquid expands and liquid level rises.

Sensitive thermometer should have the following

features:

(a) Larger bulb

(b) Narrower glass tube

(c) Containing liquid that expands more when temperature increases

Different types of thermometers

All thermometers make use of the __________________________________________ properties of materials.

Type of the thermometers Temperature-dependent properties

Liquid-in-glass thermometer _________________ of liquid

Infra-red thermometer Intensity of _________________

Rotary thermometer _________________ of bimetallic strip

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 Resistance thermometer _________________ of metal

Thermistor thermometer Resistance of _____________

Liquid-in-glass thermometers

Alcohol-in-glass thermometer Mercury-in-glass thermometer

Suitable for measuring low temperatures Suitable for measuring high temperatures

Slow response to temperature changes Quick response to temperature changes

(as alcohol is a poor conductor of heat) (as mercury is a good conductor of heat)

Alcohol is non-poisonous Mercury is poisonous

1.2 The Celsius temperature scale

Defining a Celsius temperature scale

(a) ____________ point (b) ____________ point

• lower fixed point • upper fixed point
• 0 °C • 100 °C
• temperature of pure ____________ ice at • temperature of steam over pure ___________ water at
normal atmospheric pressure normal atmospheric pressure

(c)
divided into ________ degrees Celsius (°C)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 °C

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Calibrating a thermometer

We match the temperature-dependent quantity to temperature with a linear relationship.

Steps of calibrating a liquid-in-glass thermometer

1. Put an unmarked liquid-in-glass thermometer in a beaker of pure melting ice. Mark the liquid level.

2. Repeat step 1 with pure boiling water.

3. Divide the length between two markings into 100 equal divisions.

4. Draw a straight line through the two fixed points in the L-T graph and obtain the calibration graph of the thermometer.

In the above calibration, we assume the length of liquid column varies _________________ with temperature.

However, the temperature-dependent properties of other type of thermometers may not vary __________________

with temperature.

If the calibration graph is a straight line, the relation between ℓ and T is said to be linear. If not, the relation is non-

linear. For a linear relation,

𝑳𝑻 "𝑳𝟎 𝑻"𝟎
𝑳𝟏𝟎𝟎 "𝑳𝟎
= 𝟏𝟎𝟎"𝟎

Exercise 1.1

John is given a liquid-in-glass thermometer with no scale on it. The unknown liquid column in the thermometer grows when it

gets hot. To set up a temperature scale, John calibrates the thermometer for two points. He puts his thermometer into a cup of

melting ice and boiling water in turns. The liquid column is 5 cm in melting ice, and 35 cm in boiling water.

(a) What are the values assigned for the melting temperature of ice and the boiling temperature of water?

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 (b) On the graph below, plot the two data points above. Assume the relation between ℓ and T is linear. Join the two points

with a straight line.

(c) When the thermometer is left at the room, it reads 20 °C. Find its column length ℓ at this temperature reading from the

graph.

(d) When John puts the thermometer into a cup noddle, the column length increases to 26 cm. What is the temperature

reading now?

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Exercise 1.2

Peter is given an unmarked thermistor thermometer in which the resistance of the thermistor varies with temperature.

He calibrates the thermometer at standard atmospheric pressure for the melting point of ice and the boiling point of water. The

resistances is 7353 Ω in melting ice and 153 Ω in boiling water.

(a) Assume the resistance R varies linearly with temperature T.

(i) The difference in R between the two calibration points is 7200 Ω. Find the expected change in temperature if R

increases by 720 Ω.

(ii) Find the expected resistance at 25 °C.

(b) Actually, the resistance of the thermistor does not vary linearly with temperature, but in the way as shown (not in scale).

Is the actual resistance higher than, lower than or equal to the expected value at 25 °C and 100 °C?

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 Summary

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