Types of thermometers

1. Liquid-in-glass thermometer:
The most common thermometric liquids are mercury and alcohol.
Characteristics of A Good Thermometric Liquid:
(i) It must expand or contract uniformly
(ii) It must have a high boiling point and a low melting point
(iii) It must be easily seen in glass.
Reasons why water is not used as thermometric Liquid.

(i) It has a small range of expansion (it freezes at 00C and boils at 1000C)
(ii) It wets glass.
(iii) It is colourless.
(iv) It does not expand uniformly.

Characteristics of High Sensitive liquid-In-Glass Thermometer

(i) A bulb made of thin glass: The thin wall of the glass bulb allows conduction of heat quickly
through the glass (a poor conductor of heat) to the liquid.
(ii) A narrow capillary tube with uniform bore: The fine allows a noticeable movement of the
liquid column for a small change in temperature (i.e good sensitivity) the uniform tube
ensures even expansion of the liquid.
(iii) A liquid with high expansivity:

Advantages of Mercury over Alcohol As Thermometric Liquid

1. Mercury boils at 3570C while alcohol boils at 780C.

2. Mercury does not wet glass but alcohol does.
3. Mercury is not easily vaporised
4. Mercury has a much greater conductivity than alcohol.
5. Its silvery surface makes it opaque and hence it can be easily seen.

Advantages of alcohol over Mercury

1. It freezes at -1150C whereas mercury freezes at -390C.

2. The expansivity of alcohol is about six times that of mercury for the same temperature.

Clinical Thermometer:

Clinical thermometer is used in the hospitals for measuring the temperature of the human body. The
temperature of a normal healthy person is about 370C, but it may rise to about 410C. The temperature
range of the clinical thermometer is (350C to 430C).
Therefore, it is not advisable to sterilize the clinical thermometer in boiling water at normal pressure
because the thermometer has a small temperature range which does not extend up to 100 0C. At such a
high temperature, the glass will break due to excessive expansion of the mercury.
A narrow contriction (kink): This ensures that the maximum temperature of the body is recorded. When
the temperature rises, the mercury in the bulb expands and forces it way past the contriction. When the
thermometer is removed from the patient’s mouth, the constriction prevents the contracting mercury
from flowing back into the bulb by breaking the thread at the contriction.

Maximum and minimum Thermometer

Maximum and minimum thermometer was invented by James six; it is used by Agriculturists and
metrologist (weathermen). It records both maximum and minimum temperature.
When the temperature rises, the alcohol expand and pushes the mercury round the U-tube. Its convex
meniscus pushes along a small steel index. The maximum temperature corresponds to the lower end of
the index i.e the end nearer to the mercury.
At the minimum thermometer end, the index is again pushed along by the concave alcohol meniscus
when the temperature falls and the alcohol contracts. The minimum temperature corresponds to the
lower end of the index.
The steel index can be reset using magnet

Platinum Resistance Thermometer:

It consists of a long thin wire of platinum wound round a thin mica. The principle of this thermometer is
based on the fact that the electrical resistance of platinum wire increases linearly with increase in
temperature.

Advantage of Resitance thermometer

1. It isuseful in accurate measurement of very low or very high temperatures.

Thermoelectric Thermometer

This employs the principle that the emf of two dissimilar metals such as iron and copper increases with
increase in temperature of one of the junctions with respect to the other junction. The thermocouple
circuit which is used to measure temperature works on The Seebeck effect
The Seebeck effect states that when two ends of a thermocouple are kept at different temperatures
then the emf is generated in the circuit depending on the temperature difference between the hot and
the cold junction. Therefore emf is a thermometric property of the circuit. The thermocouple is
calibrated by measuring the thermal emf at various known temperatures, the reference junction being
kept at 0° C. Peltier effect is exact opposite of Seebeck effect that the temperature difference is created
by applying the voltage between two junctions of thermocouple circuit.

1. It is very sensitive i.e can measure rapidly changing in temperature

2. It can measure high temperature up to 5000C.
3. It is very small in size.

Gas Thermometer
The principle of gas thermometer is based on the fact that at constant volume, the pressure of a gas
increases linearly with increase in temperature. When the gas in the bulb is heated, the gas expands and
pushes the mercury down in tube A and up in tube B, the pressure at that point is given by (H + h).
When the level of mercury in B is below that in A, the gas pressure is given by (H -h). where H is the
atmospheric pressure and h is the difference in the height of mercury in arm A and B.
Advntages of gas thermometer:

1. Gases have low density.

2. Gases have much lower thermal capacity than liquids making them more sensitive for changes
of temperature.
3. It is very accurate and consistent.
4. The expansion of a gas is uniform over a wide range of temperature than liquids.

Disadvantageof gas thermometer

1. It is large and cumbersome.

Bimetallic Strip Thermometers

The device consists of a bimetallic strip of two different metals. They are bonded together to form a
spiral or a twisted helix. These metals are joined together at one end by either welding or riveting. It is
bonded so strong that there will not be any relative motion between the two.

A change in temperature causes the free end of the strip to expand or contract due to the different
coefficients of expansion of the two metals. This movement is linear to the change in temperature and
the deflection of the free end can be read out by attaching a pointer to it. This reading will indicate the
value of temperature.

Advantages

1. Power source not required

2. It is easy to use and cheap.
3. It can measure up to 500 °C.

Disadvantages

1. It is not very accurate.

2. It is limited to applications where manual reading is acceptable.
3. It is not suitable for very low temperatures because the expansion of metals tend to be too
small, so the device becomes a rather insensitive thermometer.
 Summary

Types of Thermometer Thermometric Substance Physical Property

1 Liquid-in-glass thermometer Mercury or alcohol Change in volume of liquid

with temperature.

2 Gas thermometer Gas Change of gas pressure at

constant volume with
temperature.

3 Resistance thermometer Resistance wire Change in electrical

resistance of wire with
temperature.

4 Thermocouple/ Two dissimilar metals (e.g copper Change in electric potential

Thermoelectric and constantan) difference/current between
two metal juctions at
different temperature

5 Bimetallic thermometer Two dissimilar metals (e.g iron The differential expansion
and copper of the two metals of the
bimetallic strip.

EFFECTS OF HEAT

1. Change in temperature of the body.

2. Change of state of the body.
3. Chemical change.
4. Change in the physical properties of a body e.g magnetic properties, electrical resistance,
conductivity, elasticity, density and colour of a body.
5. Change in pressure. (Heat α Pressure, Heat α Volume)
6. Thermionic emission: This is the emission of electron of from the surface of hot metal.
7. Expansion of the body.