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Grade 6 Science — Temperature and its measurement

Say why touch cannot judge hotness, read a thermometer correctly, and convert a Celsius temperature to the Kelvin scale.

Name: ________________________

Before you start

Slide along this laboratory thermometer's scale. Its range runs from one end to the other, and each small step is ten degrees.

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A clinical thermometer covers nothing like this stretch, which is why it cannot be used on boiling water or on ice.

  1. 1.A thermometer that reads a person's temperature without touching them has a name in the chapter. Which is it?

    • a) A laboratory thermometer
    • b) A clinical thermometer
    • c) A non-contact, or infrared, thermometer
    • d) A mercury thermometer

  2. 2.Can a clinical thermometer be used to measure the temperature of boiling water?

    • a) Yes, but the reading has to be doubled
    • b) No, because boiling water has no temperature
    • c) No — boiling water lies outside its range
    • d) Yes, if it is held in for long enough

  3. 3.Why must a laboratory thermometer be read while its bulb is still in the water?

    • a) The liquid column starts to fall the moment it is taken out
    • b) The glass cracks if it is lifted out too quickly
    • c) The scale becomes unreadable out of water
    • d) The reading takes an hour to settle

  4. 4.One hand comes out of warm water and the other out of ice-cold water. Both go into the same bowl of tap water, and they report different things. What does the chapter conclude?

    • a) One of the hands is faulty
    • b) The tap water changed temperature in between
    • c) Touch is not a reliable way to decide how hot something is
    • d) Warm water makes whatever follows feel cold

  5. 5.A temperature of 37.0 °C on the Celsius scale is the same temperature as which reading on the Fahrenheit scale?

    • a) 100 °F
    • b) 98.6 °F
    • c) 273.15 °F
    • d) 37.0 °F

  6. 6.What is the name of the device that measures temperature?

  7. 7.A room is at 25 °C. What is that on the Kelvin scale? Answer with a number.

  8. 8.Put the steps for measuring the temperature of warm water with a laboratory thermometer back into order.

    • Dip the thermometer so the bulb is immersed, clear of the bottom and sides
    • Read it with your eye level with the top of the column, while it is still immersed
    • Wait until the liquid column stops rising
    • Hold it vertically, without tilting it

Answer key — Grade 6 Science — Temperature and its measurement

  1. 1. c) A non-contact, or infrared, thermometer
  2. 2. c) No — boiling water lies outside its range
  3. 3. a) The liquid column starts to fall the moment it is taken out
  4. 4. c) Touch is not a reliable way to decide how hot something is
  5. 5. b) 98.6 °F
  6. 6. thermometer
  7. 7. 298.15
  8. 8. 1. Dip the thermometer so the bulb is immersed, clear of the bottom and sides 2. Hold it vertically, without tilting it 3. Wait until the liquid column stops rising 4. Read it with your eye level with the top of the column, while it is still immersed