which barometer?

Question

which barometer is more accurate? The mercury or the aneroid one?
Explain.

Answer 1

THE BAROMETER WAS INVENTED IN THE LATE 1800s BUT THE MERCURY USED BACK THEN WAS NOT AS PURE AS IT IS TODAY.HOWEVER THE ANEROID TYPE OR BANJO BAROMETER IS USED IN HOMES MAINLY BECAUSE OF INACCURACY.THE SPRINGS MAY BREAK AND THE AIR PRESSURE THAT MAKES THE BAROMETER WORK CAN CAUSE MINOR DAMAGE TO THE ANEROID. THE MERCURY TYPE IS PREDOMINATELY USED BY SHIPS TO FIGURE OUT IF THERE IS A STORM FRONT APPROACHING.IN MY OPINION EITHER ONE IS ACCEPTABLE FOR FORECASTING WEATHER CHANGE.TO MY KNOWLEDGE THE MERCURY TYPE IS BETTER FOR THE COASTS OF EVERY COUNTRY THAT HAVE HURRICANES OR CYCLONES.IF YOU REMEMBER KATRINA IN 2005 THE PRESSURE WAS 902 MILLIBARS WHICH COULD POSSIBLY MAKE YOUR EAR DRUMS POP JUST LIKE WHEN YOU RAPIDLY GO TO A HIGHER ALTITUDE.

Answer 2

The use of mercury barometers is limited. They do not travel well, they are useless on ships and they are forbidden on aeroplanes. That being said, standard barometers in each country are mercury in glass barometers because overall they are more accurate.

Calibration of one barometer against another is done using an aneroid barometer, usually a digital aneroid. All national standard barometers are calibrated against the WMO standard barometer and the barometers within a country are checked against the national standard. All barometers should be accurate within half a hectoPascal.

When you are calculating the Southern Oscillation Index, one of the indicators for El Niño, you need to compare the pressures in Darwin and Tahiti. If the barometers in Darwin and Tahiti are not calibrated against a standard, the SOI is worthless.

Answer 3

Good question. Here is the scientific answer to your question. It depends, of course, to some extent on the quality of the aneroid, but in general the mercury will be more accurate due mainly to what is called the hysteresis of the aneroid. When springs expand or contract and do not always respond to small changes the lack of response is called hysteresis. This will introduce an error. Mercury has a definite and highly predictable response to changes in atmospheric pressure. They are both accurate (a measure of truth) and precise (a measure of repeatability or very small variance in the readings taken one after another). Hope this clarifies this for you a little.

Answer 4

The question is not "which thermometer is more convenient or more usefull?"The question is "which will be more accurate if both are kept side by side?".Definitely mercury thermometer will be more accurate.Because the aneroid barometer is usually made of metals, the response to the changing pressure will not be immediate compared to the response of the mercury.

Answer 5

It would depend on how large the mercury one was.