• Question: How do thermometers work?

    Asked by Lucas to Tom, Paul, Natasha, Ildiko, Ester, Eoin on 8 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Natasha Myhill

      Natasha Myhill answered on 8 Nov 2017:

      When the bulb of the thermometer heats up, the liquid inside expands (used to be mercury but now an alcohol is used as it is less toxic) and rises up through the thermometer tube. Thats all there is it to it really, at some point we just added a scale on the thermometer so we could put a number to the change in liquid level and voila, the thermometer was born.

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