What Does thermometer Mean
In the first place we are going to proceed to determine the etymological origin of the term thermometer that we are now dealing with. In this sense we can establish that it is composed of two clearly delimited words: the Greek word thermos , which can be translated as "hot", and the Greek term metron , which is synonymous with "measure".
A thermometer is an instrument that allows you to measure temperature . The most popular consist of a glass bulb that includes a small capillary tube; it contains mercury (or another material with a high coefficient of expansion), which expands according to temperature and allows it to be measured on a graduated scale.
The thermoscope that Galileo Galilei invented in 1592 is considered the predecessor of the thermometer. This device had a hollow glass ball and a tube welded to it and made it possible to measure temperature changes from the contraction or expansion of an air mass.
By incorporating the numerical graduation into the thermoscope, the thermometer emerged. In 1714 , Gabriel Fahrenheit created the aforementioned mercury thermometer. This scientist is also the creator of the Fahrenheit thermometric scale , which became the unit of temperature in the Anglo-Saxon system of units. The most common scale, however, is Celsius , named after Anders Celsius .
The pyrometer , on the other hand, is a thermometer that allows to measure the temperature of a substance without being in contact with it. It is based on the distribution of thermal radiation.
However, there are many other types of thermometers. Thus, for example, we find digital ones, which are the ones that have become the most used in homes since they are simple, fast and do not pollute. This last reason is explained by the fact that they do not contain mercury inside.
In the same way, we cannot ignore the existence of clinical thermometers either. These can be of two kinds, digital or mercury, and are the ones used in different health centers to measure the body temperature of patients.
To all these we could add the maximum thermometers, which are in charge of recording the maximum temperatures; the minimum ones, which do the same with the lowest temperature; and the spreads. The latter are used to carry out the measurement of what are small differences in temperature.
There are also kitchen thermometers that are very useful as they serve to determine the temperature at which certain foods are. This will help us, in many cases, to know if a dish that we have made needs to be in the oven longer or is already at the right point.
There are other types of thermometers that work from electrical resistance, electromotive force or the changes that a gas undergoes, for example.
Thermometers have multiple uses. The wide variety of instruments has its logic according to the different uses of the device. There are thermometers that are used in industrial production and that must withstand very high temperatures. The classic mercury thermometers, on the other hand, are used to take a fever .