• Question: Do you measure temperature with sound?

    Asked by 678mmtm34 to Josh on 13 Mar 2018.
    • Photo: Joshua Schofield

      Joshua Schofield answered on 13 Mar 2018:

      What a brilliant question! At NPL we’ve been able to create the worlds most accurate thermometer by measuring the speed of sound through a gas.

      As the speed of sound changes with the temperature of a gas, we can precisely find the time is takes for sound waves to pass through a gas, and then calculate its speed.

      As speed proportional of the temp. of a gas an accurate temperature measurement can be found from know the speed of sound.

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