a liquid thermometer works because liquid __ when warmed.

Question

anonymous · Answer

expands

ganpat · Answer

generally, liquids loose their viscosity as temperature increases..

kainui · Answer

Consider a thermometer you've seen in person! What happens? What does it look like? Are the higher temperatures at the top or the bottom of the thermometer? Why might this be?

jamesj · Answer

@ganpat is viscosity the key to a working thermometer?

ganpat · Answer

@jamesj: the dependence of the viscosity of a liquid on temperature is due entirely to the change of volume at constant pressure..

ganpat · Answer

and i forgot to mention, the key factor over here would be, coefficient of expansion  !!!

kainui · Answer

Yeah I was going to say, I don't think I can recall checking how syrupy or runny the liquid in the thermometer was to gauge the temperature. But it might be an interesting concept for a thermometer. Maybe you have a glass cylinder with a liquid that spins at a constant rate all the time like this:

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The colder it is, the more viscous it is so it will travel up further angles to show a colder temperature while the hotter it is, the more flat the thermometer's liquid will stay when it's spinning.

Now if you could somehow get the wind to turn an anemometer or something that would spin the thing of liquid at a constant rate, or perhaps even make the thermometer show how the wind affects our perceived temperatures, that would be cool. Or hot.