I recently replaced my old thermometers that used Mercury, and I realized I have no idea how the electronic ones can measure the temperature.
Thanks in advance!
In: 6
It uses metal whose electric resistance changes depending on temperature. So it just measures the resistance of the small piece of metal and calculates the temperature from it.
There’s many different ways to measure temperature but the main ones are
– Thermistor
– Infrared
– thermocouple
The first one is probably one of the most common, a resistor that changes value with temperature, you can measure the resistance and get the temperature back
Infrared thermometers read how much infrared light is being emitted by the object, the more the hotter, if it’s calibrated correctly you can get a pretty good temperature reading without touching the object/person
Thermocouples are a bit more complicated and are often used as probes because they are tiny and can be on a long wire without affecting the measurement, they rely on the thermoelectric effect, the fact two metals joined together will generate a tiny voltage depending on the temperature difference between the two ends of the wire Steve Mould has a video explaining how it works
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