despite mercury being poor conductor of heat why is it being used in thermometer?

Answer 1

It isn't any longer because of environmental concerns.
In a thermometer,the expansion rate of a material is far more important that it's ability to conduct heat.

Answer 2

well, mercury is actually not a bad conductor of heat...its a liquid metal and it has particularly high specific gravity ( i.e. abt 13.6)....and it can conduct heat....when u place a thermometer, in the required place, it expands due to heat and rises up the tube...also it doesn't stick to the glass tube becos the force of adhesion between the mercury and the glass molecules is less than the force of cohesion between the mercury molecules..and since its specific gravity is high it won't expand to a large extent and thus will occupy a relatively lesser volume than any other substance, say water....it is for this reason that mercury is used in thermometers as well as pressure measuring devices like manometers, etc.

Answer 3

mecury is a tupe of metal which exist in liquid state . hence mercury is use because it will not melt in high tempreture and can will not easily burn because the boiling point of mercury is high about 700 to 800 celceis

Answer 4

Because it is liquid over a wide range of practical temperatures and its expansion is what makes it useful.

Answer 5

i) mercury doesn't "boil" under human-livable temperature range
ii) it has a "nice" [linear] thermal expansion coefficient
iii) it's nicely visible (opaque)

heat-conduction is fairly irrelavent

Answer 6

Sorry, thought you said electricity.