10 Interesting Facts about Temperature

One of these following facts about temperature will give you much information about it. Temperature is a numerical measure of hot and cold. Its measurement is by detection of heat radiation or particle velocity or kinetic energy, or, most commonly, by the bulk behavior of athermometric material. It may be calibrated in any of various temperature scales, Celcius, Fahrenheit, Kelvin, etc. Measurements with a small thermometer, or by detection of heat radiation, can show that the temperature of a body of material can vary from time to time and from place to place within it.  To get to know more about it, here are some other facts about temperature you might be interested in.

Facts about temperature 1: Use in Science

Many things depend on temperature, such as physical properties of materials, the amount and properties of thermal radiation and also speed of sound.

Facts about temperature 2: Temperature Scales

Temperature scales differ in two ways: the point chosen as zero degrees, and the magnitudes of incremental units or degrees on the scale.

Facts about temperature 3: Kinds of Temperature Scales

There is a variety of kinds of temperature scale. It may be convenient to classify them as empirically and theoretically based. Empirical temperature scales are historically older, while theoretically based scales arose in the middle of the nineteenth century.

Facts about temperature 4: Celcius Scale

The Celcius scale (°C) is used for common temperature measurements in most of the world. It is an empirical scale. It developed by a historical progress, which led to its zero point 0°C being defined by the freezing point of water, with additional degrees defined so that 100°C was the boiling point of water, both at sea-level atmospheric pressure.

Facts about temperature 5: Empirically Based Scale

Empirically based temperature scales rely directly on measurements of simple physical properties of materials. For example, the length of a column of mercury, confined in a glass-walled capillary tube, is dependent largely on temperature, and is the basis of the very useful mercury-in-glass thermometer.

Facts about temperature 6: Theoretically Based Scale

Theoretically based temperature scales are based directly on theoretical arguments, especially those of thermodynamics, of kinetic theory, and of quantum mechanics. They rely on theoretical properties of idealized devices and materials. They are more or less comparable with practically feasible physical devices and materials.

Facts about temperature 7: Recent Increased Temperature

Recent increases in the Earth’s temperature have been linked to human activity such as the burning of fossil fuels. Global warming has become an important issue for governments around the world and a number of organizations have been created to help deal with climate change.

Facts about temperature 8: Hottest Temperature

The hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth is 57.8 °C (136 °F), recorded in Al ‘Aziziyah, Libya on September 13, 1922.

Facts about temperature 9: Basic Theory

Temperature is a measure of a quality of a state of a material. The quality may be regarded as a more abstract entity than any particular temperature scale that measures it, and is called hotness by some writers. The quality of hotness refers to the state of material only in a particular locality.

Facts about temperature 10: Heat Capacity

When a sample is heated, meaning it receives thermal energy from an external source, some of the introduced heat is converted into kinetic energy, the rest to other forms of internal energy, specific to the material. The amount converted into kinetic energy causes the temperature of the material to rise.

Hope you would find those temperature facts really interesting and useful for your additional reading.