TEMPERATURE

CONCEPT

Temperature is one of those aspects of the everyday world that seems rather abstract when viewed from the standpoint of physics. In scientific terms, it is not simply a measure of hot and cold, but an indicator of molecular motion and energy flow. Thermometers measure temperature by a number of means, including the expansion that takes place in a medium such as mercury or alcohol. These measuring devices are gauged in several different ways, with scales based on the freezing and boiling points of water—as well as, in the case of the absolute temperature scale, the point at which all molecular motion virtually ceases.

HOW IT WORKS

HEAT

Energy appears in many forms, including thermal energy, or the energy associated with heat. Heat is internal thermal energy that flows from one body of matter to another—or, more specifically, from a system at a higher temperature to one at a lower temperature.

Two systems at the same temperature are said to be in a state of thermal equilibrium. When this occurs, there is no exchange of heat. Though people ordinarily speak of "heat" as an expression of relative warmth or coldness, in physical terms, heat only exists in transfer between two systems. It is never something inherently part of a system; thus, unless there is a transfer of internal energy, there is no heat, scientifically speaking.

HEAT: ENERGY IN TRANSIT.

Thus, heat cannot be said to exist unless there is one system in contact with another system of differing temperature. This can be illustrated by way of the old philosophical question: "If a tree falls in the woods when there is no one to hear it, does it make a sound?" From a physicist's point of view, of course, sound waves are emitted whether or not there is an ear to receive their vibrations; but, consider this same scenario in terms of heat. First, replace the falling tree with a hypothetical object possessing a certain amount of internal energy; then replace sound waves with heat. In this case, if this object is not in contact with something else that has a different temperature, it "does not make a sound"—in other words, it transfers no internal energy, and, thus, there is no heat from the standpoint of physics.

This could even be true of two incredibly "hot" objects placed next to one another inside a vacuum—an area devoid of matter, including air. If both have the same temperature, there is no heat, only two objects with high levels of internal energy. Note that a vacuum was specified: assuming there was air around them, and that the air was of a lower temperature, both objects would then be transferring heat to the air.

RELATIVE MOTION BETWEEN MOLECULES.

If heat is internal thermal energy in transfer, from whence does this energy originate? From the movement of molecules. Every type of matter is composed of molecules, and those molecules are in motion relative to one another. The greater the amount of relative motion between molecules, the greater the kinetic energy, or the energy of movement, which is manifested as thermal energy. Thus, "heat"—to use the everyday term for what physicists describe as thermal energy—is really nothing more than the result of relative molecular motion. Thus, thermal energy is sometimes identified as molecular translational energy.

Note that the molecules are in relative motion, meaning that if one were "standing" on a molecule, one would see the other molecules moving. This is not the same as movement on the part of a large object composed of molecules; in this case, molecules themselves are not directly involved in relative motion.

Put another way, the movement of Earth through space is an entirely different type of movement from the relative motion of objects on Earth—people, animals, natural forms such as clouds, manmade forms of transportation, and so forth. In this example, Earth is analogous to a "large" item of matter, such as a baseball, a stream of water, or a cloud of gas.

The smaller objects on Earth are analogous to molecules, and, in both cases, the motion of the larger object has little direct impact on the motion of smaller objects. Hence, as discussed in the Frame of Reference essay, it is impossible to perceive with one's senses the fact that Earth is actually hurling through space at incredible speeds.

MOLECULAR MOTION AND PHASES OF MATTER.

The relative motion of molecules determines phase of matter—that is, whether something is a solid, liquid, or gas. When molecules move quickly in relation to one another, they exert a small electromagnetic attraction toward one another, and the larger material of which they are a part is called a gas. A liquid, on the other hand, is a type of matter in which molecules move at moderate speeds in relation to one another, and therefore exert a moderate intermolecular attraction.

The kinetic theory of gases relates molecular motion to energy in gaseous substances. It does not work as well in relation to liquids and solids; nonetheless, it is safe to say that—generally speaking—a gas has more energy than a liquid, and a liquid more energy than a solid. In a solid, the molecules undergo very little relative motion: instead of bumping into each other, like gas molecules and (to a lesser extent) liquid molecules, solid molecules merely vibrate in place.

UNDERSTANDING TEMPERATURE

As with heat, temperature requires a scientific definition quite different from its common meaning. Temperature may be defined as a measure of the average molecular translational energy in a system—that is, in any material body.

Because it is an average, the mass or other characteristics of the body do not matter. A large quantity of one substance, because it has more molecules, possesses more thermal energy than a smaller quantity of that same substance. Since it has more thermal energy, it transfers more heat to any body or system with which it is in contact. Yet, assuming that the substance is exactly the same, the temperature, as a measure of average energy, will be the same as well.

Temperature determines the direction of internal energy flow between two systems when heat is being transferred. This can be illustrated through an experience familiar to everyone: having one's temperature taken with a thermometer. If one has a fever, one's mouth will be warmer than the thermometer, and therefore heat will be transferred to the thermometer from the mouth until the two objects have the same temperature.

At that point of thermal equilibrium, a temperature reading can be taken from the thermometer.

TEMPERATURE AND HEAT FLOW.

The principles of thermodynamics—the study of the relationships between heat, work, and energy, show that heat always flows from an area of higher temperature to an area of lower temperature. The opposite simply cannot happen, because coldness, though it is very real in terms of sensory experience, is not an independent phenomenon. There is not, strictly speaking, such a thing as "cold"—only the absence of heat, which produces the sensation of coldness.

One might pour a kettle of boiling water into a cold bathtub to heat it up; or put an ice cube in a hot cup of coffee "to cool it down." These seem like two very different events, but from the standpoint of thermodynamics, they are exactly the same. In both cases, a body of high temperature is placed in contact with a body of low temperature, and in both cases, heat passes from the high-temperature body to the low-temperature one.

The boiling water warms the tub of cool water, and due to the high ratio of cool water to boiling water in the bathtub, the boiling water expends all its energy raising the temperature in the bathtub as a whole. The greater the ratio of very hot water to cool water, on the other hand, the warmer the bathtub will be in the end. But even after the bath water is heated, it will continue to lose heat, assuming the air in the room is not warmer than the water in the tub. If the water in the tub is warmer than the air, it immediately begins transferring thermal energy to the low-temperature air until their temperatures are equalized.

As for the coffee and the ice cube, what happens is quite different from, indeed, opposite to, the common understanding of the process. In other words, the ice does not "cool down" the coffee: the coffee warms up the ice and presumably melts it. Once again, however, it expends at least some of its thermal energy in doing so, and as a result, the coffee becomes cooler than it was.

If the coffee is placed inside a freezer, there is a large temperature difference between it and the surrounding environment—so much so that if it is left for hours, the once-hot coffee will freeze. But again, the freezer does not cool down the coffee; the molecules in the coffee respond to the temperature difference by working to warm up the freezer. In this case, they have to "work overtime," and since the freezer has a constant supply of electrical energy, the heated molecules of the coffee continue to expend themselves in a futile effort to warm the freezer. Eventually, the coffee loses so much energy that it is frozen solid; meanwhile, the heat from the coffee has been transferred outside the freezer to the atmosphere in the surrounding room.

THERMAL EXPANSION AND EQUILIBRIUM.

Temperature is related to the concept of thermal equilibrium, and has an effect on thermal expansion. As discussed below, as well as within the context of thermal expansion, a thermometer provides a gauge of temperature by measuring the level of thermal expansion experienced by a material (for example, mercury) within the thermometer.

In the examples used earlier—the thermometer in the mouth, the hot water in the cool bathtub, and the ice cube in the cup of coffee—the systems in question eventually reach thermal equilibrium. This is rather like averaging their temperatures, though, in fact, the equation involved is more complicated than a simple arithmetic average.

In the case of an ordinary mercury thermometer, the need to achieve thermal equilibrium explains why one cannot get an instantaneous temperature reading: first, the mouth transfers heat to the thermometer, and once both mouth and thermometer reach the same temperature, they are in thermal equilibrium. At that point, it is possible to gauge the temperature of the mouth by reading the thermometer.

REAL-LIFE APPLICATIONS

DEVELOPMENT OF THE THERMOMETER

A thermometer can be defined scientifically as a device that gauges temperature by measuring a temperature-dependent property, such as the expansion of a liquid in a sealed tube. As with many aspects of scientific or technological knowledge, the idea of the thermometer appeared in ancient times, but was never developed. Again, like so many other intellectual phenomena, it lay dormant during the medieval period, only to be resurrected at the beginning of the modern era.

The Greco-Roman physician Galen (c. 129-216) was among the first thinkers to envision a scale for measuring temperature. Of course, what he conceived of as "temperature" was closer to the everyday meaning of that term, not its more precise scientific definition: the ideas of molecular motion, heat, and temperature discussed in this essay emerged only in the period beginning about 1750. In any case, Galen proposed that equal amounts of boiling water and ice be combined to establish a "neutral" temperature, with four units of warmth above it and four degrees of cold below.

THE THERMOSCOPE.

The great physicist Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) is sometimes credited with creating the first practical temperature measuring device, called a thermoscope. Certainly Galileo—whether or not he was the first—did build a thermoscope, which consisted of a long glass tube planted in a container of liquid. Prior to inserting the tube into the liquid—which was usually colored water, though Galileo's thermoscope used wine—as much air as possible was removed from the tube. This created a vacuum, and as a result of pressure differences between the liquid and the interior of the thermoscope tube, some of the liquid went into the tube.

But the liquid was not the thermometric medium—that is, the substance whose temperature-dependent property changes the thermoscope measured. (Mercury, for instance, is the thermometric medium in most thermometers today.) Instead, the air was the medium whose changes the thermoscope measured: when it was warm, the air expanded, pushing down on the liquid; and when the air cooled, it contracted, allowing the liquid to rise.

It is interesting to note the similarity in design between the thermoscope and the barometer, a device for measuring atmospheric pressure invented by Italian physicist Evangelista Torricelli (1608-1647) around the same time. Neither were sealed, but by the mid-seventeenth century, scientists had begun using sealed tubes containing liquid instead of air. These were the first true thermometers.

EARLY THERMOMETERS.

Ferdinand II, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1610-1670), is credited with developing the first thermometer in 1641. Ferdinand's thermometer used alcohol sealed in glass, which was marked with a temperature scale containing 50 units. It did not, however, designate a value for zero.

English physicist Robert Hooke (1635-1703) created a thermometer using alcohol dyed red. Hooke's scale was divided into units equal to about 1/500 of the volume of the thermometric medium, and for the zero point, he chose the temperature at which water freezes. Thus, Hooke established a standard still used today; likewise, his thermometer itself set a standard. Built in 1664, it remained in use by the Royal Society—the foremost organization for the advancement of science in England during the early modern period—until 1709.

Olaus Roemer (1644-1710), a Danish astronomer, introduced another important standard. In 1702, he built a thermometer based not on one but two fixed points, which he designated as the temperature of snow or crushed ice, and the boiling point of water. As with Hooke's use of the freezing point, Roemer's idea of the freezing and boiling points of water as the two parameters for temperature measurements has remained in use ever since.

TEMPERATURE SCALES

FAHRENHEIT.

Not only did he develop the Fahrenheit scale, oldest of the temperature scales still used in Western nations today, but German physicist Daniel Fahrenheit (1686-1736) also built the first thermometer to contain mercury as a thermometric medium. Alcohol has a low boiling point, whereas mercury remains fluid at a wide range of temperatures. In addition, it expands and contracts at a very constant rate, and tends not to stick to glass. Furthermore, its silvery color makes a mercury thermometer easy to read.

Fahrenheit also conceived the idea of using "degrees" to measure temperature in his thermometer, which he introduced in 1714. It is no mistake that the same word refers to portions of a circle, or that exactly 180 degrees—half the number in a circle—separate the freezing and boiling points for water on Fahrenheit's thermometer. Ancient astronomers attempting to denote movement in the skies used a circle with 360 degrees as a close approximation of the ratio between days and years. The number 360 is also useful for computations, because it has a large quantity of divisors, as does 180—a total of 16 whole-number divisors other than 1 and itself.

Though it might seem obvious that 0 should denote the freezing point and 180 the boiling point on Fahrenheit's scale, such an idea was far from obvious in the early eighteenth century. Fahrenheit considered the idea not only of a 0-to-180 scale, but also of a 180-to-360 scale. In the end, he chose neither—or rather, he chose not to equate the freezing point of water with zero on his scale. For zero, he chose the coldest possible temperature he could create in his laboratory, using what he described as "a mixture of sal ammoniac or sea salt, ice, and water." Salt lowers the melting point of ice (which is why it is used in the northern United States to melt snow and ice from the streets on cold winter days), and, thus, the mixture of salt and ice produced an extremely cold liquid water whose temperature he equated to zero.

With Fahrenheit's scale, the ordinary freezing point of water was established at 32°, and the boiling point exactly 180° above it, at 212°. Just a few years after he introduced his scale, in 1730, a French naturalist and physicist named Rene Antoine Ferchault de Reaumur (1683-1757) presented a scale for which 0° represented the freezing point of water and 80° the boiling point. Although the Reaumur scale never caught on to the same extent as Fahrenheit's, it did include one valuable addition: the specification that temperature values be determined at standard sea-level atmospheric pressure.

CELSIUS.

With its 32-degree freezing point and its 212-degree boiling point, the Fahrenheit system is rather ungainly, lacking the neat orderliness of a decimal or base-10 scale. The latter quality became particularly important when, 10 years after the French Revolution of 1789, France adopted the metric system for measuring length, mass, and other physical phenomena. The metric system eventually spread to virtually the entire world, with the exception of English-speaking countries, where the more cumbersome British system still prevails. But even in the United States and Great Britain, scientists use the metric system. The metric temperature measure is the Celsius scale, created in 1742 by Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius (1701-1744).

Like Fahrenheit, Celsius chose the freezing and boiling points of water as his two reference points, but he determined to set them 100, rather than 180, degrees apart. Interestingly, he planned to equate 0° with the boiling point, and 100° with the freezing point—proving that even the most apparently obvious aspects of a temperature scale were once open to question. Only in 1750 did fellow Swedish physicist Martin Strömer change the orientation of the Celsius scale.

Celsius's scale was based not simply on the boiling and freezing points of water, but, specifically, those points at normal sea-level atmospheric pressure. The latter, itself a unit of measure known as an atmosphere (atm), is equal to 14.7 lb/in², or 101,325 pascals in the metric system. A Celsius degree is equal to 1/100 of the difference between the freezing and boiling temperatures of water at 1 atm.

The Celsius scale is sometimes called the centigrade scale, because it is divided into 100 degrees, cent being a Latin root meaning "hundred." By international convention, its values were refined in 1948, when the scale was redefined in terms of temperature change for an ideal gas, as well as the triple point of water. (Triple point is the temperature and pressure at which a substance is at once a solid, liquid, and vapor.) As a result of these refinements, the boiling point of water on the Celsius scale is actually 99.975°. This represents a difference equal to about 1 part in 4,000—hardly significant in daily life, though a significant change from the standpoint of the precise measurements made in scientific laboratories.

KELVIN.

In about 1787, French physicist and chemist J. A. C. Charles (1746-1823) made an interesting discovery: that at 0°C, the volume of gas at constant pressure drops by 1/273 for every Celsius degree drop in temperature. This seemed to suggest that the gas would simply disappear if cooled to −273°C, which, of course, made no sense. In any case, the gas would most likely become first a liquid, and then a solid, long before it reached that temperature.

The man who solved the quandary raised by Charles's discovery was born a year after Charles—who also formulated Charles's law—died. He was William Thomson, Lord Kelvin (1824-1907), and in 1848, he put forward the suggestion that it was molecular translational energy, and not volume, that would become zero at −273°C. He went on to establish what came to be known as the Kelvin scale.

Sometimes known as the absolute temperature scale, the Kelvin scale is based not on the freezing point of water, but on absolute zero—the temperature at which molecular motion comes to a virtual stop. This is −273.15°C (−459.67°F), which in the Kelvin scale is designated as 0K. (Kelvin measures do not use the term or symbol for "degree.")

Though scientists normally use metric or SI measures, they prefer the Kelvin scale to Celsius, because the absolute temperature scale is directly related to average molecular translational energy. Thus, if the Kelvin temperature of an object is doubled, this means that its average molecular translational energy has doubled as well. The same cannot be said if the temperature were doubled from, say, 10°C to 20°C, or from 40°C to 80°F, since neither the Celsius nor the Fahrenheit scale is based on absolute zero.

CONVERSIONS.

The Kelvin scale is, however, closely related to the Celsius scale, in that a difference of 1 degree measures the same amount of temperature in both. Therefore, Celsius temperatures can be converted to Kelvins by adding 273.15. There is also an absolute temperature scale that uses Fahrenheit degrees. This is the Rankine scale, created by Scottish engineer William Rankine (1820-1872), but it is seldom used today: scientists and others who desire absolute temperature measures prefer the precision and simplicity of the Celsius-based Kelvin scale.

Conversion between Celsius and Fahrenheit figures is a bit more challenging. To convert a temperature from Celsius to Fahrenheit, multiply by 9/5 and add 32. It is important to perform the steps in that order, because reversing them will produce a wrong answer. Thus, 100°C multiplied by 9/5 or 1.8 equals 180, which, when added to 32 equals 212°F. Obviously, this is correct, since 100°C and 212°F each represent the boiling point of water. But, if one adds 32 to 100°, then multiplies it by 9/5, the result is 237.6°F—an incorrect answer.

For converting Fahrenheit temperatures to Celsius, there are also two steps, involving multiplication and subtraction, but the order is reversed. Here, the subtraction step is performed before the multiplication step: thus, 32 is subtracted from the Fahrenheit temperature, then the result is multiplied by 5/9. Beginning with 212°F, if 32 is subtracted, this equals 180. Multiplied by 5/9, the result is 100°C—the correct answer.

One reason the conversion formulae use fractions instead of decimal fractions (what most people simply call "decimals") is that 5/9 is a repeating decimal fraction (0.55555….) Further more, the symmetry of 5/9 and 9/5 makes memorization easy. One way to remember the formula is that F ahrenheit is multiplied by a f raction—since 5/9 is a real fraction, whereas 9/5 is actually a whole number plus a fraction.

THERMOMETERS

As discussed earlier, with regard to the early history of the thermometer, it is important that the glass tube be kept sealed; otherwise, atmospheric pressure contributes to inaccurate readings, because it influences the movement of the thermometric medium. Also important is the choice of the thermometric medium itself.

Water quickly proved unreliable, due to its unusual properties: it does not expand uniformly with a rise in temperature, or contract uniformly with a lowered temperature. Rather, it reaches its maximum density at 39.2°F (4°C), and is less dense both above and below that temperature. Therefore, alcohol, which responds in a much more uniform fashion to changes in temperature, took its place.

MERCURY THERMOMETERS.

Alcohol is still used in thermometers today, but the preferred thermometric medium is mercury. As noted earlier, its advantages include a much higher boiling point, a tendency not to stick to glass, and a silvery color that makes its levels easy to gauge visually. Like alcohol, mercury expands at a uniform rate with an increase in temperature: hence, the higher the temperature, the higher the mercury stands in the thermometer.

In a typical mercury thermometer, mercury is placed in a long, narrow sealed tube called a capillary. The capillary is inscribed with figures for a calibrated scale, usually in such a way as to allow easy conversions between Fahrenheit and Celsius. A thermometer is calibrated by measuring the difference in height between mercury at the freezing point of water, and mercury at the boiling point of water. The interval between these two points is then divided into equal increments—180, as we have seen, for the Fahrenheit scale, and 100 for the Celsius scale.

ELECTRIC THERMOMETERS.

Faster temperature measures can be obtained by thermometers using electricity. All matter displays a certain resistance to electrical current, a resistance that changes with temperature. Therefore, a resistance thermometer uses a fine wire wrapped around an insulator, and when a change in temperature occurs, the resistance in the wire changes as well. This makes possible much quicker temperature readings than those offered by a thermometer containing a traditional thermometric medium.

Resistance thermometers are highly reliable, but expensive, and are used primarily for very precise measurements. More practical for everyday use is a thermistor, which also uses the principle of electric resistance, but is much simpler and less expensive. Thermistors are used for providing measurements of the internal temperature of food, for instance, and for measuring human body temperature.

Another electric temperature-measurement device is a thermocouple. When wires of two different materials are connected, this creates a small level of voltage that varies as a function of temperature. A typical thermocouple uses two junctions: a reference junction, kept at some constant temperature, and a measurement junction. The measurement junction is applied to the item whose temperature is to be measured, and any temperature difference between it and the reference junction registers as a voltage change, which is measured with a meter connected to the system.

OTHER TYPES OF THERMOMETER.

A pyrometer also uses electromagnetic properties, but of a very different kind. Rather than responding to changes in current or voltage, the pyrometer is a gauge that responds to visible and infrared radiation. Temperature and color are closely related: thus, it is no accident that greens, blues, and purples, at one end of the visible light spectrum, are associated with coolness, while reds, oranges, and yellows at the other end are associated with heat. As with the thermocouple, a pyrometer has both a reference element and a measurement element, which compares light readings between the reference filament and the object whose temperature is being measured.

Still other thermometers, such as those in an oven that tell the user its internal temperature, are based on the expansion of metals with heat. In fact, there are a wide variety of thermometers, each suited to a specific purpose. A pyrometer, for instance, is good for measuring the temperature of an object that the thermometer itself does not touch.

WHERE TO LEARN MORE

About Temperature (Web site). <http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/staff/blynds/tmp.html> (April 18, 2001).

About Temperature Sensors (Web site). <http://www.temperatures.com> (April 18, 2001).

Gardner, Robert. Science Projects About Methods of Measuring. Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Enslow Publishers, 2000.

Maestro, Betsy and Giulio Maestro. Temperature and You. New York: Macmillan/McGraw-Hill School Publishing, 1990.

Megaconverter (Web site). <http://www.megaconverter.com> (April 18, 2001).

NPL: National Physics Laboratory: Thermal Stuff: Beginners' Guides (Web site). <http://www.npl.co.uk/npl/cbtm/thermal/stuff/guides.html> (April 18, 2001).

Royston, Angela. Hot and Cold. Chicago: Heinemann Library, 2001.

Santrey, Laurence. Heat. Illustrated by Lloyd Birmingham. Mahwah, N.J.: Troll Associates, 1985.

Suplee, Curt. Everyday Science Explained. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 1996.

Walpole, Brenda. Temperature. Illustrated by Chris Fairclough and Dennis Tinkler. Milwaukee, WI: Gareth Stevens Publishing, 1995.

KEY TERMS

ABSOLUTE ZERO:

The temperature, defined as 0K on the Kelvin scale, at which the motion of molecules in a solid virtually ceases.

CELSIUS SCALE:

A scale of temperature, sometimes known as the centigradescale, created in 1742 by Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius (1701-1744). The Celsius scale establishes the freezing and boiling points of water at 0° and 100°, respectively. To convert a temperature from the Celsius to the Fahrenheit scale, multiply by 9/5 and add 32. The Celsius scale is part of the metric system used by mostnon-English speaking countries today. Though the worldwide scientific community uses the metric or SI system for most measurements, scientists prefer the related Kelvin scale.

FAHRENHEIT SCALE:

The oldest of the temperature scales still used in Westernnations today, created in 1714 by German physicist Daniel Fahrenheit (1686-1736). The Fahrenheit scale establishes the freezing and boiling points of water at 32° and 212° respectively. To convert a temperature from the Fahrenheit to the Celsius scale, subtract 32 and multiply by 5/9. Most English-speaking countries use the Fahrenheitscale.

HEAT:

Internal thermal energy that flows from one body of matter to another.

KELVIN SCALE:

Established by William Thomson, Lord Kelvin (1824-1907), the Kelvin scale measures temperature in relation to absolute zero, or 0K.(Units in the Kelvin system, known as Kelvins, do not include the word or symbol for degree.) The Kelvin and Celsius scales are directly related; hence, Celsius temperatures can be converted to Kelvins by adding 273.15. The Kelvin scale is used almost exclusively by scientists.

KINETIC ENERGY:

The energy that an object possesses by virtue of its motion.

MOLECULAR TRANSLATIONAL ENERGY:

The kinetic energy in a system produced by the movement of molecules in relation to one another.

SYSTEM:

In physics, the term "system" usually refers to any set of physical interactions, or any material body, isolated from the rest of the universe. Anything outside of the system, including all factors and forces irrelevant to a discussion of that system, is known as the environment.

TEMPERATURE:

A measure of the average kinetic energy—or molecular translational energy in a system. Differences in temperature determine the direction of internal energy flow between two systems when heat is being transferred.

THERMAL ENERGY:

Heat energy, a form of kinetic energy produced by the movement of atomic or molecular particles. The greater the movement of the separticles, the greater the thermal energy.

THERMAL EQUILIBRIUM:

The statethat exists when two systems have the same temperature. As a result, there is no exchange of heat between them.

THERMODYNAMICS:

The study of the relationships between heat, work, and energy.

THERMOMETRIC MEDIUM:

A substance whose properties change with temperature. A mercury or alcohol thermometer measures such changes.

THERMOMETER:

A device that gauges temperature by measuring a temperature-dependent property, such as the expansion of a liquid in a sealed tube, or resistance to electric current.

TRIPLE POINT:

The temperature and pressure at which a substance is at once asolid, liquid, and vapor.

VACUUM:

Space entirely devoid of matter, including air.