Temperature


Temperature quantitatively expresses the attribute of hotness or coldness. Temperature is measured with a thermometer. It reflects the average kinetic energy of the vibrating and colliding atoms making up a substance.
In classical thermodynamics and kinetic theory, temperature reflects the average kinetic energy of the particles in a system, providing a quantitative measure of how energy is distributed among microscopic degrees of freedom.
Thermometers are calibrated in various temperature scales that historically have relied on various reference points and thermometric substances for definition. The most common scales are the Celsius scale with the unit symbol °C, the Fahrenheit scale, and the Kelvin scale, with the third being used predominantly for scientific purposes. The kelvin is one of the seven base units in the International System of Units.
Absolute zero, i.e., zero kelvin, 0 K = −273.15 °C, is the lowest point in the thermodynamic temperature scale. Experimentally, it can be approached very closely but not actually reached, as recognized in the third law of thermodynamics. It would be impossible to extract energy as heat from a body at that temperature.
Temperature is important in all fields of natural science, including physics, chemistry, Earth science, astronomy, medicine, biology, ecology, material science, metallurgy, mechanical engineering and geography as well as most aspects of daily life.

Effects

Many physical processes are related to temperature; some of them are given below:
Temperature scales need two values for definition: the point chosen as zero degrees and the magnitudes of the incremental unit of temperature.
The Celsius scale is used for common temperature measurements in most of the world. It is an empirical scale that developed historically, which led to its zero point being defined as the freezing point of water, and as the boiling point of water, both at atmospheric pressure at sea level. It was called a centigrade scale because of the 100-degree interval. Since the standardization of the kelvin in the International System of Units, it has subsequently been redefined in terms of the equivalent fixing points on the Kelvin scale, so that a temperature increment of one degree Celsius is the same as an increment of one kelvin, though numerically the scales differ by an exact offset of 273.15.
The Fahrenheit scale is in common use in the United States. Water freezes at and boils at at sea-level atmospheric pressure.

Absolute zero

At the absolute zero of temperature, no energy can be removed from matter as heat, a fact expressed in the third law of thermodynamics. At this temperature, matter contains no macroscopic thermal energy, but still has quantum-mechanical zero-point energy as predicted by the uncertainty principle, although this does not enter into the definition of absolute temperature. Experimentally, absolute zero can be approached only very closely; it can never be reached. Theoretically, in a body at a temperature of absolute zero, all classical motion of its particles has ceased and they are at complete rest in this classical sense. Absolute zero, defined as, is exactly equal to, or.

Absolute scales

Referring to the Boltzmann constant, to the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution, and to the Boltzmann statistical mechanical definition of entropy, as distinct from the Gibbs definition, for independently moving microscopic particles, disregarding interparticle potential energy, by international agreement, a temperature scale is defined and said to be absolute because it is independent of the characteristics of particular thermometric substances and thermometer mechanisms. Apart from absolute zero, it does not have a reference temperature. It is known as the Kelvin scale, widely used in science and technology. The kelvin is the unit of temperature in the International System of Units. The temperature of a body in a state of thermodynamic equilibrium is always positive relative to absolute zero.
Besides the internationally agreed Kelvin scale, there is also a thermodynamic temperature scale, invented by Lord Kelvin, also with its numerical zero at the absolute zero of temperature, but directly relating to purely macroscopic thermodynamic concepts, including the macroscopic entropy, though microscopically referable to the Gibbs statistical mechanical definition of entropy for the canonical ensemble, that takes interparticle potential energy into account, as well as independent particle motion so that it can account for measurements of temperatures near absolute zero. This scale has a reference temperature at the triple point of water, the numerical value of which is defined by measurements using the aforementioned internationally agreed Kelvin scale.

Kelvin scale

Many scientific measurements use the Kelvin temperature scale, named in honor of the physicist who first defined it. It is an absolute scale. Its numerical zero point,, is at the absolute zero of temperature. Since May 2019, the kelvin has been defined [|through particle kinetic theory], and statistical mechanics. In the International System of Units, the magnitude of the kelvin is defined in terms of the Boltzmann constant, the value of which is defined as fixed by international convention.

Statistical mechanical ''versus'' thermodynamic temperature scales

Since May 2019, the magnitude of the kelvin is defined in relation to microscopic phenomena, characterized in terms of statistical mechanics. Previously, but since 1954, the International System of Units defined a scale and unit for the kelvin as a thermodynamic temperature, by using the reliably reproducible temperature of the triple point of water as a second reference point, the first reference point being at absolute zero.
Historically, the temperature of the triple point of water was defined as exactly 273.16 K. Today it is an empirically measured quantity. The freezing point of water at sea-level atmospheric pressure occurs at very close to .

Classification of scales

There are various 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.

Empirical scales

Empirically based temperature scales rely directly on measurements of simple macroscopic 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. Such scales are valid only within convenient ranges of temperature. For example, above the boiling point of mercury, a mercury-in-glass thermometer is impracticable. Most materials expand with temperature increase, but some materials, such as water, contract with temperature increase over some specific range, and then are hardly useful as thermometric materials. A material is of no use as a thermometer near one of its phase-change temperatures, such as its boiling point.
In spite of these limitations, most generally used practical thermometers are of the empirically based kind. Especially, it was used for calorimetry, which contributed greatly to the discovery of thermodynamics. Nevertheless, empirical thermometry has serious drawbacks when judged as a basis for theoretical physics. Empirically based thermometers, beyond their base as simple direct measurements of ordinary physical properties of thermometric materials, can be recalibrated, by use of theoretical physical reasoning, and this can extend their range of adequacy.

Theoretical scales

Theoretically based temperature scales are based directly on theoretical arguments, especially those of kinetic theory and thermodynamics. They are more or less ideally realized in practically feasible physical devices and materials. Theoretically based temperature scales are used to provide calibrating standards for practical empirically based thermometers.

Microscopic statistical mechanical scale

In physics, the internationally agreed conventional temperature scale is called the Kelvin scale. It is calibrated through the internationally agreed and prescribed value of the Boltzmann constant, referring to motions of microscopic particles, such as atoms, molecules, and electrons, constituent in the body whose temperature is to be measured. In contrast with the thermodynamic temperature scale invented by Kelvin, the presently conventional Kelvin temperature is not defined through comparison with the temperature of a reference state of a standard body, nor in terms of macroscopic thermodynamics.
Apart from the absolute zero of temperature, the Kelvin temperature of a body in a state of internal thermodynamic equilibrium is defined by measurements of suitably chosen of its physical properties, such as have precisely known theoretical explanations in terms of the Boltzmann constant. That constant refers to chosen kinds of motion of microscopic particles in the constitution of the body. In those kinds of motion, the particles move individually, without mutual interaction. Such motions are typically interrupted by inter-particle collisions, but for temperature measurement, the motions are chosen so that, between collisions, the non-interactive segments of their trajectories are known to be accessible to accurate measurement. For this purpose, interparticle potential energy is disregarded.
In an ideal gas, and in other theoretically understood bodies, the Kelvin temperature is defined to be proportional to the average kinetic energy of non-interactively moving microscopic particles, which can be measured by suitable techniques. The proportionality constant is a simple multiple of the Boltzmann constant. If molecules, atoms, or electrons are emitted from material and their velocities are measured, the spectrum of their velocities often nearly obeys a theoretical law called the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution, which gives a well-founded measurement of temperatures for which the law holds. There have not yet been successful experiments of this same kind that directly use the Fermi–Dirac distribution for thermometry, but perhaps that will be achieved in the future.
The speed of sound in a gas can be calculated theoretically from the gas's molecular character, temperature, pressure, and the Boltzmann constant. For a gas of known molecular character and pressure, this provides a relation between temperature and the Boltzmann constant. Those quantities can be known or measured more precisely than can the thermodynamic variables that define the state of a sample of water at its triple point. Consequently, taking the value of the Boltzmann constant as a primarily defined reference of exactly defined value, a measurement of the speed of sound can provide a more precise measurement of the temperature of the gas.
Measurement of the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation from an ideal three-dimensional black body can provide an accurate temperature measurement because the frequency of maximum spectral radiance of black-body radiation is directly proportional to the temperature of the black body; this is known as Wien's displacement law and has a theoretical explanation in Planck's law and the Bose–Einstein law.
Measurement of the spectrum of noise-power produced by an electrical resistor can also provide accurate temperature measurement. The resistor has two terminals and is in effect a one-dimensional body. The Bose-Einstein law for this case indicates that the noise-power is directly proportional to the temperature of the resistor and to the value of its resistance and to the noise bandwidth. In a given frequency band, the noise-power has equal contributions from every frequency and is called Johnson noise. If the value of the resistance is known then the temperature can be found.