At my school they gave us thermometers to use but said ther was no mercurey in them for saftey reasons, is this possibal?
2006-09-17 01:36:02 · 14 answers · asked by egggirl12 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Chemistry
yes it's possible
ear thermometers & digitals have no mercury. Mercury is very dangerous if you were to break a mercury thermometer and get the mercury on your skin it would absorb and could kill you.
2006-09-17 01:45:14 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes I am a chemical lab technician and all my thermometers are mercury-free. Mercury is a dangerous and highly toxic element and it is safer not to have it in objects.
A lot of non-mercury thermometers contain a non-toxic substance called isoamyl benzoate with a blue dye; the red thermometers usually contain pentane or xylene with a red dye.
The accuracy of these thermometers is just as good as the mercury thermometers in temperatures under 150 degrees Celsius.
2006-09-17 08:41:34 · answer #2 · answered by genaddt 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes. Thermometers can have any liquid in them. Alcohol is also used (is that safe in schools? :-) I wonder!) The reason for mercury is that it is liquid over a wide range of temperatures. See link below for many types of thermometers.
2006-09-17 08:41:50 · answer #3 · answered by aRTy 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You still have metal based thermometer, using an eutectic allow of bismuth instead of toxic mercury (an eutectic is an allow that melts at a lower temperature than its constituents). So, you do have liquid metal thermometers around, that are perfectly safe.
2006-09-17 08:47:10 · answer #4 · answered by Vincent G 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes. They could use thermocouples. They are two thin strips of different kinds of metal, glued together. One of the metals expand faster than the other, causing a slight bend in the thermocouple. Attached to the end is a needle which points to a different temperature on a scale as the thermocouple moves. Aren't we humans clever?
2006-09-17 08:41:53 · answer #5 · answered by regerugged 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
All liquids change volume with temperature change. Water is not good for this because it is most compact at 4deg. C, and mainly because it freezes.
Most thermometers now use alcohol.
2006-09-17 08:41:59 · answer #6 · answered by luosechi 駱士基 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Absolutely. Mercury is not the only substance that is ultra-sensitive to temperature changes. As you know elements of the same period and family share many characteristics. There are also electromagnetic means of measuring temperature. See the source below.
2006-09-17 08:40:34 · answer #7 · answered by kmm4864990 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
One of the best thermometers is a gas thermometer. It relies ion the linear expansion of a gas, usually Helium.
2006-09-17 09:15:44 · answer #8 · answered by christopher N 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Lots of liquids expand (almost) linearly with temperature changes, as long as the temperatures never approach the change-of-state points for that liquid.
2006-09-17 08:49:01 · answer #9 · answered by David S 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes , it may contain alcohol instead. Alcohol expands when heated.
2006-09-17 08:39:46 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋