THERMOMETERS, ITS TYPES AND CALCULATION

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
By the end of the lesson students should be able to:
 Illustrate the Thermometer description and comparison of its types
 Converting Kelvin scale to Celsius scale and Fahrenheit scales
 Distinguishing the lower and the upper fixed points of thermometers
 Solving simple calculations on thermometers

In order to gauge accurately the exact degree of hotness or coldness of a body, an

instrument called the thermometer is used. Thermometers are much more reliable
instrument for measuring temperatures.
TYPES OF THERMOMETERS

1. Liquid-in-glass thermometer–this applies to the expansion of a liquid in a

thin-walled glass-tube. The liquid moves up the tube when the bulb is heated.
The liquid must be a good conductor, visible and be able to contract and
expand quickly and uniformly over a wide range of temperatures. It should
also not stick on the sides of the tube. Liquids commonly used are mercury
and coloured alcohol.
The scale is obtained by choosing two temperature points called fixed points.
In Celsius lower point is taken to be 0 o C (when placed in ice) and the upper
point as 100 o C (boiling steam).
The two points are therefore divided into 100 equal parts (calibration). The
melting and boiling points of both mercury and alcohol are (-39 o C – 357 o C)
and (-112 o C - 78 o C) respectively.
For high sensitivity, liquid-in-glass thermometers should have:
i. A bulb made of thin glass; this enables the liquid in the bulb to
assume the temperature of its surrounding quickly
ii. A narrow capillary tube with uniform bore; this make it possible for
small temperature changes to cause large changes in the length of
the mercury column
iii. A liquid with a high expansivity
To be used as a thermometric liquid, such a liquid should:
i. Expand or contract uniformly with temperature changes
ii. Have a high boiling point and a low melting point
iii. Be easily seen in glass
Discussion: Why is water not considered as a good liquid thermometric
property?
Solution:
 It has a small range of expansion
 It freezes at 0 0 C and boils at 100 0 C
 It does not expand uniformly
 It contracts from 0 0 C to 4 0 C
 It wets glass
 It is colourless thus making the meniscus in glass difficult to read.
Physical Property:
Change in volume of liquid with temperature
Thermometric Substance:
Mercury or Alcohol
COMPARISON OF MERCURY AND ALCOHOL AS THERMOMETRIC LIQUIDS
Mercury has the following advantages over Alcohol as thermometric liquid:
1. Mercury has a much greater conductivity than Alcohol and expands
rapidly and uniformly thus indicates a temperature change quickly.
Alcohol being a relatively poor conductor expands slowly and thus
responds to temperature changes slowly.
2. Its silvery surface makes Mercury opaque and coloured to be easily
seen. Alcohol has to be coloured to be easily seen
3. Mercury does not wet glass but Alcohol does because of its concave
meniscus tend to cling to the walls of stem of the thermometer.
4. Mercury is not easily vapourised whereas Alcohol is very easily
vapourised even at low temperatures.
 5. Mercury boils at 357 0 C while Alcohol boils at 78 0 C. Thus Mercury can be
used to measure higher temperatures over Alcohol
Alcohol has the following advantages over Mercury as a thermometric liquid:
1. It freezes at -115 0 C whereas Mercury freezes at -39 0 C. Alcohol can
therefore be used for measuring low temperatures.
2. The expansivity of Alcohol is about six times (6x) that of Mercury for
the same temperature rise.

2. Clinical thermometer – this is a special type of mercury-in-glass

thermometer used to measure body temperature. Since body temperature is
normally 37 o C the scale is only a few degrees below and above 37 o C.
It has a constriction which prevents mercury from going back after expansion
for convenient reading of temperature.
This thermometer has a narrow bore for greater sensitivity and accuracy.

3. Six’s maximum and minimum thermometer – it is used to measure temperature

of surroundings of an area or a place.

It can record both maximum and minimum temperatures attained.

Consists of a large bulb (A) containing oil of creosote connected to U-shaped
stem which connects to a second bulb (B) containing the same liquid.
The base (C) contains a thin thread of mercury. The range of this
thermometer is between -20 o C and 50 o C. After each reading the indices are
pulled down to the level of mercury by use of a
magnet.
4. Bimetallic thermometer– it is made up of a bimetallic strip with one end fixed
and the other connected to a pointer.

Metals used are usually brass and invar.

As temperatures increase the strip unwinds and moves the pointer over a
calibrated scale. It is used to measure high temperatures.

Thermometric Substance:
Two dissimilar metals (e.g. Iron and Copper)
Physical Property:
The differential expansion of the two metals of the bimetallic strip
5. Thermocouple thermometer– thermocouple is a junction made of copper and iron
looped at both ends. In practice a sensitive millivoltmeter is used instead of a
galvanometer.

A cold junction is maintained in melting ice (0 0 C) while the other junction is

heated steadily. This thermometer does not apply the principle of expansion.
Thermometric Substance:
Two dissimilar metals (e.g. Copper and Constantan)
Physical Property:
Change in electric potential difference or current between two metal
junctions at different temperatures
6. Gas Thermometer
There are two main types of gas thermometer, one operating at constant volume and
the other at constant pressure. The constant-volume gas thermometer is by far the more
widely used and so we will deal with it alone.
The ideal gas equation states that for n moles of a gas:

PV =nRT
Therefore for a gas at constant volume V the absolute temperature T is directly
proportional to the pressure of the gas P.
A simple form of constant-volume gas thermometer is shown in Figure 1. The gas is
enclosed in the bulb B and the pressure recorded by the difference in levels (h) of the
mercury columns. The mercury level at R is always adjusted so that it coincides with the
mark. The pressure of the gas within the bulb is then given by P = A + h, where A is the
atmospheric pressure.

If the atmospheric pressure varies during the experiment allowance must be made for
this, since it is the total gas pressure that is measured.

The gas in the bulb can be air, hydrogen, helium or nitrogen, although it is the constant-
volume hydrogen gas thermometer that is taken as standard.

The simple form of constant-volume gas thermometer is subject to errors due to changes
in volume of the glass and of the mercury (due to temperature variations), to pressure on
the bulb and to the exposed column 'dead space', that is, the volume of gas that is
outside the region of which the temperature is being measured.

It has the further disadvantages that it is not direct-reading, and that it cannot be used to
measure varying temperatures, because gases are such poor conductors of heat.

A more accurate form of constant-volume thermometer has been designed where some
of these errors are reduced, the dead space is made as small as possible and the bulb
containing the gas is large(1.6litres).

By using different gas thermometers a wide range of temperatures can be measured:

Hydrogen -200 oC to +500 oC

Nitrogen +500 oC to +1500 oC
Helium -270 oC to +1500 oC

These thermometers can be very accurate, to within 0.005 oC from 0 oC to 100 oC, 0.1 oC
around 500 oC and to within 2 oC at 1500 oC

Thermometric Substance:
Gas
Physical Property:
Change of gas pressure at constant volume with temperature
7. Resistance Thermometer:
Resistance thermometer is a device that is used to determine temperature by
the variation in the resistance of a conductor. It is commonly known as Resistance
Temperature Detector (RTD) and is an accurate temperature sensor.

RTD is not used for dynamic temperature measurement. It consists of a long thin
platinum wire wound round a small spool made of mica or silica. The ends of the wire are
connected to a resistance measuring device such as a Wheatstone bridge. If for example,
a given platinum wire has a resistance Ro at 0 ℃ and R100 at 100 ℃ then the temperature
t, when its resistance is R is given by:
R−R 0
t= ×100 ℃ …………………..(1)
R 100 −R0
ILLUSTRATION
The electrical resistance of a platinum wire at 0 0C is 9.8 ohms (Ω) at 1000C. Calculate the
temperature when the resistance is 10.4 ohms (Ω) assuming that the change in the
electrical resistance of conductor is proportional to the change in temperature.
Solution
R−R 0
Using t= ×100 ℃
R 100 −R0
10.4−9.8
t= × 100
11.0−9.8
∴ t=50℃

Thermometric Substance:
Resistance wire
Physical Property:
Change in the electrical resistance of wire with temperature
Table 1.0: TYPES OF THERMOMETER
Type of Thermometer Thermometric substance Physical Property
1. Liquid-in-glass Mercury or Alcohol Change in volume of
liquid with temperature
2. Gas Thermometer
3. Resistance Thermometer
4. Thermocouple
5. Bimetallic Thermometer
Gas Change of gas pressure
at constant volume
with temperature.
Resistance wire Change in the electrical
resistance of wire with
temperature.
Two dissimilar metals Change in electric
(e.g. Copper and potential difference or
Constantan) current between two
metal junctions at
different temperatures.
Two dissimilar metals The differential
(e.g. Iron and Copper) expansion of the two
metals of the bimetallic
strip.

FIXED TEMPERATURE AND TEMPERATURE SCALES OF THERMOMETER

Each thermometer has reference temperature or fixed points called the
Upper fixed temperature point and the Lower fixed temperature point.
UPPER FIXED POINT
This is the temperature of steam from pure water boiling at standard
atmospheric pressure of 760 mmHg (Hg = Mercury)
The upper fixed point of an unmarked thermometer can be determined using
a Hypsometer, a double walled copper vessel constructed as shown below:

LOWER FIXED POINT

This is the temperature of pure melting ice at the standard atmospheric
pressure of 760 mmHg.
The difference in temperature between the two temperature points is called
the Fundamental Interval or Temperature Interval of a thermometer.
The lower fixed point is determined by placing the thermometer upright in
pure melting ice contained in a glass funnel as shown below:

TEMPERATURE SCALES
There are three types of scales in current use:
1. The Celsius scale ( o C)
2. The Fahrenheit scale ( o F)
3. The Absolute/Thermodynamic/Kelvin scale
CELSIUS SCALE ( o C)
The lower and upper fixed points of Celsius scale are 0 0 C and 100 0 C. The
fundamental interval in the Celsius scale is divided into 100 equal parts, each
part of which defines 1 0 C in this scale.
THE FAHRENHEIT SCALE ( O F)
The lower and upper fixed points of the Fahrenheit scale ( o F) are 32 0 F and
212 0 F. The fundamental interval in the Fahrenheit scale ( o F) scale is divided
into 180 units or degree.
THE ABSOLUTE/THERMODYNAMIC/KELVIN SCALE
The fundamental interval for the Kelvin scale goes from a lower fixed point of
273K to an upper fixed point of 373K. This interval is divided into 100 equal
parts each of which is equal to 1 K. Temperatures on this scale are not
measured in degrees but in units called Kelvin (K).
A temperature of θ0 C in the Celsius is related to T of the Kelvin scale by:
T =θ+273 …………………(2)
ILLUSTRATION
Case 1: The lower and upper fixed points of a certain thermometer are 30 cm
apart. At a certain day, the length of mercury thread in the thermometer is 9
cm above the ice point (0 0 C). What is the temperature recorded by the
thermometer in: a. Celsius scale
b. Kelvin scale
Solution
Let the temperature recorded in Celsius be θ0 C . The fixed points are 30 cm
apart. We assume the temperature increases in a linear scale. Then from the
scale by taking proportions:
AB DE LM
= =
AC DF ln
θ−0 9 cm
=
100−0 30 cm
By cross multiplying;
0
θ=30 C
From equation 2: T =θ+273=30+273=303 K
Case 2: A faulty Celsius thermometer reads 0.7 0 C at the melting point of pure
ice and 99.5 0 C at the boiling point of water at normal pressure.
a. What is the correct temperature when its reads 300 C ?
b. At what temperature will its reading be exactly correct?
Solution
Let the correct temperature when the faulty thermometer reads 300 C be t 0 C .
Fundamental interval of faulty thermometer is 99.5 0 C−0.7 0 C=98.8 0 C .
Fundamental interval of accurate thermometer is 1000 C−00 C
By taking proportions;
t−0 30−0.7 29.3
= =
100−0 99.5−0.7 98.8

t 29.3
=
100 98.8
Making t the subject:
0
t=29.6 C
b. Let the faulty thermometer record the true temperature at θ0 C :
θ θ−0.7
∴ =
100 98.8
 98.8 θ=100 θ−70
70
θ=
1.2
∴ θ=58.33 ℃
Case 3: A constant volume gas thermometer records a pressure of 250 mmHg
at o o C and 290 mmHg at 100 0 C. Calculate the room temperature when the gas
pressure is 262 mmHg.
Solution
Difference in the pressures of fixed points:
290 – 250 = 40 mmHg
Difference in temperature of fixed points:
100 – 0 = 100 0 C
Pressure difference between room temperature and ice point:
262 – 250 = 12 mmHg
If the room temperature is t 0 C, taking the proportions:
t 12
=
100 40
∴ t=30℃
DISCUSSION
Q: When is a thermometer said to be sensitive?

TEMPERATURE SCALE CONVERSIONS

To convert
Use this equation . . .
from . . .

Celsius to 9
T ℉ = T ℃+ 32
Fahrenheit 5

Fahrenheit to 5
T ℃= (T ℉ −32)
Celsius 9

Celsius to Kelvin T k =T ℃ +273

Kelvin to Celsius T ℃=T k −273

 TEMPERATURE SCALE CONVERSIONS

Fahrenheit to 5
T k = ( T ℉ −32 ) +273
Kelvin 9

Kelvin to 9
T ℉ = ( T k −273 ) +32
Fahrenheit 5

Notice that the conversions between Fahrenheit and Kelvin look quite complicated. In
fact, they are simple combinations of the conversions between Fahrenheit and Celsius,
and the conversions between Celsius and Kelvin.

ILLUSTRATION: CONVERTING BETWEEN TEMPERATURE SCALES: ROOM TEMPERATURE

“Room temperature” is generally defined to be 25ºC.

1. What is room temperature in ºF?
2. What is it in K?

Strategy

To answer these questions, all we need to do is choose the correct conversion equations
and plug in the known values.

Solution for Part 1

1. Choose the right equation. To convert from ºC to ºF, use the equation :
9
T ℉ = T ℃+ 32
5
2. Plug the known value into the equation and solve:
9
T ℉ = ( 25 ℃ ) +32=77 ℉
5

Solution for Part 2

1. Choose the right equation. To convert from ºC to K, use the equation TK = TºC +
273.15
2. Plug the known value into the equation and solve: TK = 25ºC + 273.15 = 298 K.

EVALUATION
1. A thermometer with a n arbitrary scale, S, of equal divisions registers -300S at the ice
point and +900S at the steam point. Calculate the Celsius temperature corresponding to
600S
A. 25.00S B. 50.00S C. 66.70S D. 75.00S
2. Water is not suitable for use as a thermometric liquid because:
i. It wets glass ii. It needs to be coloured iii. It expands abnormally
iv. It has a low density
A. I only B. I and II only C. I,II and III only D. II and III only E. III and
IV only
3. A thermometer has its stem marked in millimetre instead of degree Celsius.
The lower fixed point is 30 mm and the upper fixed point is 180 mm. Calculate
the temperature in degree Celsius when the thermometer reads 45 mm.
A. 67.5 o C B. 30.0 0 C C. 25.0 0 C D. 15.0 0 C E. 10.0 0 C
4. Which of the following cannot be used to measure the temperature of a
substance?
A. Variation of pressure with temperature
B. Expansivity of liquid
C. Change in resistance of a conductor
D. Thermo-electric effect
E. Change in colour with temperature
5. Which of the following thermometer can be used to measure a range of
temperature from -50 to -80 0 C?
I. A clinical thermometer
II. A mercury thermometer
III. An Alcohol thermometer
A. I only B. II only C. III only D. I and II only E. II and III only
6. Which of the following thermometers responds best to changing
temperature?
A. Mercury thermometer B. Alcohol thermometer C. Resistance thermometer
D. Thermoelectric thermometer E. Gas thermometer
ASSIGNMENT
1. State three desirable properties of a thermometric liquid. List four
advantages and four disadvantages of (a) Mercury (b) Alcohol as
thermometric liquids. Why is water considered as an unsuitable liquid
for a thermometer?
2. a (i) Distinguish between Temperature and Heat. State the units in
which they are measured.
(ii) State two (2) physical properties used for measuring temperature.
 b (i) Describe with aid of a diagram, how the upper fixed point is
determined for a mercury thermometer. State two precautions to ensure
accurate results.

(ii) State one advantage which a constant-volume gas thermometer has

over other thermometers and one reason why it is seldom used as an
everyday laboratory instrument

3. Define Upper fixed point and Lower fixed point as used in

thermometry. (Support your answers with well-labelled diagram)

4. The electric resistance of the element in a platinum resistance

thermometer at 100.0 0 C and room temperature are 75.000, 63.000 and
64.992 respectively. Use these data to determine the room
temperature.

5. A thermometer which was not accurately calibrated indicates -0.5 0 C at

lower fixed point and 106 0 C at upper fixed point. What temperature
does the temperature register when the true temperature is 60 0 C?

6. Draw a labelled diagram of a clinical thermometer and explain how it

works. Give the reasons for the following features of the thermometer:

I. A bulb of thin glass

II. The construction near the bulb

III. A tube of fine bore