Eli5: How does a thermometer on a car work?

938 views

I can’t think of a location within the bodywork of a car that would provide accurate data considering wind-chill when it’s moving, excessive heat from either the engine, or stationary in the sun.

In: 242

26 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

My car has it sticking out the bottom of the bumper in front of the right front tire. Wind chill actually makes it more accurate, as others have stated. You actually want it to be placed into the Wind.

Anonymous 0 Comments

A temperature sensor is not subject to wind-chill effects as long as it is not wet.

If anything, it will be most accurate while the car is moving since the constant airflow over then sensor would mitigate other effects (thermal radiation from road, engine or other parts of the car’s body).

Anonymous 0 Comments

One I can speak to! There’s a temperature sensor either in the grill or in the side view mirror. There are also timers calibrated such that the in- vehicle display only updates under certain conditions.

Example 1: driving in stop and go traffic in 90 degrees, the air near the sensor will heat up because of your engine heat and the surrounding traffic, so the timer is set up not not update until the car is above some speed threshold for say 30 seconds to ensure enough air passes the sensor to give an accurate reading.

Example 2: if you park the car overnight somewhere, it’s assumed the sensor is at ambient temperature so the in- vehicle display immediately uses the sensor temperature when you start the car

Example 3: most calibrations are set up to protect against example 1 above, but going through a car wash you can often watch the in- vehicle display drop due to the cool water. Then it takes a little driving to get the display to “warm up” to outside ambient when you leave the car wash.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Newer cars get the temp from the Air Mass Sensor. It’s part of your air intake system. It provides information about the air coming into the engine so that it can give the ideal amount of gas for combustion. Hot air is less dense, so less gas.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Windchill is the stripping of a thermal barrier that naturally forms from warmer objects. It’s like blowing on a hot soup. Soup stays warm because there is a barrier of hot air stopping more hot air from escaping. You blow that way, and it quickly cools.

Windchill doesn’t just make things colder. It makes things the ambient temperature.

Anonymous 0 Comments

wind chill is an attempt to model the effect of evaporative cooling (like sweat evaporating off skin and taking heat away in the process) in the presence of moving air.

if the object isn’t wet or moist with water then it is irrelevant.