Article
Article
Temperature measurement
Article By:
Mangum, B. W. Thermometry Group, Process Measurement Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Last reviewed:June 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.683700
Measurement of the hotness of a body relative to a standard scale. The fundamental scale of temperature is the thermodynamic scale, which can be derived from any equation expressing the second law of thermodynamics. Efforts to approximate the thermodynamic scale as closely as possible depend on relating measurements of temperature-dependent physical properties of systems to thermodynamic relations expressed by statistical thermodynamic equations, thus in general linking temperature to the average kinetic energy of the measured system. Temperature-measuring devices, thermometers, are systems with properties that change with temperature in a simple, predictable, reproducible manner. See also: Temperature; Thermodynamic principles
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