1st Semester

Physics 73.1

A.Y. 2016 - 2017

Name:

Experiment Date:
Date Submitted:

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Instructor:

Prelab: Temperature Measurement

Read the manual then answer the following items:
1. What is thermal equilibrium?

2. In the experiment, which of the following quantities will be measured? calculated?

Place a checkmark X accordingly.

Quantity

Measured

Calculated

Ti
Tf
T ( )

3. If the time constant of an alcohol thermometer is found to be 5.0 s, how long must
you wait in order to get a reliable temperature reading after the thermometer is
put in contact with a body?

4. Based on the experiment, how do you determine if a thermometer is linear?

Prelab: Temperature Measurement

P1

EXPERIMENT
Temperature Measurement

Objectives
At the end of the activity, the student should be able to:
operate different temperature sensors.
measure the thermal time constant of different temperature sensors.
determine the minimum waiting time before reading measurements of temperature
sensors.
characterize the response of different thermal sensors with temperature.

Introduction
Temperature refers to the warmness or coldness of an object or a system. Unlike mass,
length, and time, temperature cannot be directly measured. Instead, what is measured is
the thermometric property of an object, that is, its physical property that changes with
temperature.[1]
This experiment will introduce you to different temperature sensors along with their
thermometric properties. It will show that there is a minimum waiting time before the
reading of a temperature sensor becomes reliable.

Theory
When two objects, one warm and one cold, are placed in contact, the warmer one cools
while the cooler one warms up. We say that they are in thermal contact. Eventually,
there comes a point when no more changes occur and they will feel the same. The two
are then said to be in thermal equilibrium with each other.
Suppose we now have three objects, A, B and C. If A and B are put in contact with
object C but not with each other, and each achieve thermal equilibrium with C, then A
and B are also in thermal equilibrium. This refers to the zeroth law of thermodynamics.
A, B and C are defined to have the same temperature.
Heat from a hotter object will transfer to the colder one until they both reach a
common temperature that is different from their original temperatures. If a thermometer
Temperature Measurement

1st Semester

Physics 73.1

A.Y. 2016 - 2017

is placed in thermal contact with a hot body, what we actually read is the temperature
of the thermometer itself. The act of touching the body with a thermometer changes the
temperature of the body. It is therefore necessary that the transfer of heat to or from
the thermal sensor is minimal such that it does not change the temperature of the object
significantly. We have to wait until thermal equilibrium is reached before we can obtain a
reliable temperature reading and it takes time to achieve this. How fast a thermal sensor
achieves thermal equilibrium with a body depends on the thermal time constant of the
sensor.
Consider a temperature sensor that has a reading T (t) at any time t. Initially, the
sensor has a temperature T (t = 0) = Ti and is placed in contact with an object that is
maintained at a constant temperature. After a sufficient time, the temperature sensor
would have a final reading Tf . The difference between Tf and T (t) is
T (t) = Tf T (t).

(1)

If the sensor is a first-order linear device, the rate of change of T can be assumed to be
proportional to the difference of Ti and Tf
dT
= kT
dt

(2)

where k is a positive constant. The negative sign here implies that the rate of change
of T decreases in time. If we let k = 1/ , where has units of time, Equation (2)
becomes
T
dT
=
.
dt

(3)

T (t) = Ti + (Tf Ti ) 1 et/ .

(4)

Solving for T (t) we obtain

As time approaches infinity, the exponential term vanishes and we are left with T (t
) = Tf , which is the final temperature. When t = , Equation (3) becomes

T ( ) = Ti + (Tf Ti )(1 e1 ) Ti + 0.632(Tf Ti ).

(5)

This means that after one time constant, the temperature sensor will have a reading
equal to its initial reading plus 63.2% of its final and initial temperature difference,
T0 = Tf Ti . The temperature T (t) for any time t after a few multiples of are shown
in Table 1.
Temperature Measurement

1st Semester

Physics 73.1

A.Y. 2016 - 2017

Table 1: Temperature readings for times corresponding to the first five thermal time
constants.
t

T (t)

Ti + 0.632T0

Ti + 0.864T0

Ti + 0.950T0

Ti + 0.982T0

Ti + 0.993T0

The thermal time constant of a particular temperature sensor, therefore, can be used
to specify how long one must wait to get a reliable temperature reading. Depending on
the accuracy required, it is common engineering practice to wait for at least 95% to 99%
of the increase/decrease of the temperature difference, or three to five time constants
before recording the output of a temperature sensor. Waiting for longer times would only
yield a small change in temperature, and may lead to more prominent errors from heat
transfer of the system to the environment.
The derivation of the thermal time constant assumes that the sensor reacts linearly
with temperature. For some materials, however, this is not true. A material with a linear
thermometric property has identical responses to heating and coolingits cooling and
heating time constants are the same.

Temperature Sensor
Temperature can be felt but cannot be measured directly. Instead we observe the reaction
of materials to heat and cold and measure their degree of reaction. For example, metals
expand when heated. We can then measure how much the expansion is and equate
it to a certain temperature. These and other measurable reactions to heat are called
thermometric properties and they are exploited in the temperature sensors we will use in
this experiment.
Glass Thermometer
Most substances expand when heated. Alcohol in the capillary of glass thermometers
expand linearly with increasing temperature. In essence, a glass thermometer with a
Celsius (Centigrade) scale is made as follows. A thin glass tube is evacuated and half of
it is filled with colored alcohol (mercury is toxic and hard to procure). The tube is sealed
then one of its ends is dipped in ice.
The level of the liquid is marked and labelled 0 C. The same end is dipped in boiling
water then, after waiting for the liquid to stop expanding, the level of the liquid is marked
and labelled 100 C. Since the expansion of the liquid is linear with temperature, the space
between the two marks is divided into 100 equally-spaced divisions.
In accordance with the zeroth law of thermodynamics, if the thermometer is placed
in thermal contact with a body and the length of the liquid inside the capillary reaches
the same level as that marked for 100 C then that object is at 100 C.
Temperature Measurement

Physics 73.1

1st Semester

A.Y. 2016 - 2017

Thermocouple
When two wires made from different metals are welded together and exposed to a hot or
cold region, electrical current will flow through the wire. This phenomenon is called the
Seebeck effect and is exploited by temperature sensors known as thermocouples. When
connected to a calibrated read-out device, the system becomes a digital thermometer.
Thermistor
A semiconductor is a material with properties between that of a conductor and an insulator. When heated, it becomes more conducting. Its resistance varies nonlinearly with
temperature such that when a constant current is passed through it, the voltage across it
will vary. If used in this manner, the semiconductor device is known as a thermistor. The
stainless steel temperature probe to be used in this experiment has a thermistor inside
it.

Materials
The following materials are required for the experiment:
Alcohol thermometer
Digital thermometer with thermocouple probe
Vernier LabQuest with stainless steel temperature probe
Stopwatch (mobile phones with stopwatch function can be used)
Stove
Casserole
250 mL Beaker
Mittens
Ice

Temperature Measurement

Physics 73.1

1st Semester

A.Y. 2016 - 2017

Procedure
CAUTION:
Steam from boiling water reaches 100 C. To protect your hand from scalding, use
mittens when holding sensors near steam sources.

Heating Process
1. Fill a casserole with water up to 3/4 full and let the water boil. Keep the water
boiling throughout the activity.
2. Prepare an ice bath in a 250 mL beaker.
3. Take the alcohol thermometer and dip it in hot water. When the temperature stops
increasing, record the final temperature as Tf in Table W1.
4. Dip the alcohol thermometer in the ice bath. Wait for the temperature reading to
stop decreasing then record it as Ti .
5. Compute for T ( ) using equation (5) and record in Table W1.
6. With initial temperature Ti , dip the alcohol thermometer in the boiling water then
measure the time it takes for the temperature reading to reach the calculated T ( ).
Record this measured time in Table W1.
7. Repeat procdure 3-6 for two more trials.

Cooling Process
1. Fill a casserole with water up to 3/4 full and let the water boil. Keep the water
boiling throughout the activity.
2. Prepare an ice bath in a 250 mL beaker.
3. Take the alcohol thermometer and dip it in the ice bath. When the temperature
stops decreasing, record the final temperature as Tf in Table W2.
4. Dip the alcohol thermometer in the hot water. Wait for the temperature reading
to stop increasing then record it as Ti .
5. Compute for T ( ) using equation (5) and record in Table W2.
6. With initial temperature Ti , dip the alcohol thermometer in the boiling water then
measure the time it takes for the temperature reading to reach the calculated T ( ).
Record this measured time in Table W2.
7. Repeat procdure 3-6 for two more trials.
Repeat the heating and cooling process procedures for the thermocouple and thermistor.
Record your data in Table W3-W6.
Temperature Measurement

Physics 73.1

1st Semester

A.Y. 2016 - 2017

Suggested Extension Experiment

1. Will the thermal time constant remain the same if the initial temperature varies?
Design an experiment to check your hypothesis.
2. Explore Newtons law of cooling and heating.

Bibliography
[1] Paul A. Tipler and Gene Mosca. Physics for Scientists and Engineers - With Modern
Physics, Chapter 17, Sixth Edition, W.H. Freeman and Company, England, 2008.

Temperature Measurement

1st Semester

Physics 73.1

A.Y. 2016 - 2017

Group Members:

Date Performed:
Date Submitted:

Section:

Score:

Instructor:

Data Sheet
Alcohol Thermometer
Table W1: Heating
Trial

Tf ( C)

Ti ( C)

T ( )

Table W2: Cooling

(s))

Trial

Tf ( C)

Ti ( C)

T ( )

(s))

Thermocouple
Table W3: Heating
Trial

Tf ( C)

Ti ( C)

T ( )

Table W4: Cooling

(s))

Trial

Tf ( C)

Ti ( C)

T ( )

(s))

Thermistor
Table W5: Heating
Trial

Tf ( C)

Ti ( C)

T ( )

Table W6: Cooling

(s))

Trial

Worksheet: Temperature Measurement

Tf ( C)

Ti ( C)

T ( )

(s))

W1

1st Semester

Physics 73.1

A.Y. 2016 - 2017

Table W7: Average Thermal Time Constant

Sensor

heating (s)

cooling (s)

Alcohol thermometer
Thermocouple
Thermistor

Questions
1. Which of the sensors is the most linear? Explain your answer by comparing their
time constants for heating and cooling.

2. When you have a fever, you usually use a thermometer to measure your temperature. What is the minimum time needed to get a reliable temperature reading after
placing each sensor from storage (at room temperature) to your armpit?

Sensor

Waiting time (s)

Alcohol thermometer
Thermocouple
Thermistor

Worksheet: Temperature Measurement

W2