I feel stupid to ask but here goes.
So you can sit in a sauna where the thermometer measures the air at 80oc, and it’s fairly comfortable. But if you sit in water which a thermometer measures at 80oc, you die pretty instantly.
So I get that water is denser and so transmits heat faster – but then… what is the thermometer measuring if not heat transfer???
Tia
In: Physics
Imagine taking a thermometer with you into both the sauna and the water. Suppose the air outside the water or sauna was 30 degrees celsius. The temperature indicated by the thermometer will slowly increase from 30 to 80, but it will increase much faster in the water. When you take the thermometer out, it will not snap back to 30 degrees, it will take some time.
It’s the same way when you are sick, and you put a thermometer under your tongue. You have to hold it there for several minutes until the thermometer stabilizes.
The temperature the thermometer measures is basically how fast molecules are vibrating. It takes time for the molecules in the thermometer to vibrate at the same speed as those of the surrounding air / water.
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