Temperature Measurement

A thermometer is a device that registers temperature or temperature

gradient of a substance. Three thermometers are used in the experiment, an alcohol
thermometer, a thermocouple and a thermistor.
Alcohol thermometers are based on the principle of thermal expansion. As
the temperature of the liquid in the thermometer increases, its volume
increases.With the increase in volume, the height in the glass tube increases too;
thus the linear relationship between the temperature and the expansion of liquid.
A thermocouple on the other hand is a junction formed from two dissimilar
metals where one metal is at a reference temperature while the other is at the
temperature to be measured. The temperature difference then gives voltage which
is dependent with temperature. The voltage can then be expressed as temperature.
Thermistors are resistors which changes its resistivity with changing
temperature. This means the temperature dependence of the its resistivity.
The experiment aims to calculate the different temperature time constants
of each thermometer. The time constant, , can be expressed from the solution of
the differential equation relationship between the rate of change of

T o , where

T ( t ) and

T ( t ) is the temperature difference between the thermometer and

the system, and

T o is the difference between the final temperature of the

system, and the inital temperature of the thermometer. Equations 1 and 2 shows
the differential equation and its solution.

d ( T ( t ) ) 1
=
T 0 (1)
dt

T ( t )= T 0 e (2)