How Many Types of Temperature Measurement Are There?

[soonsoon88]

Temperature measurement can be categorize into...how many ?
Temperature measurement by mechanical effect..
Temperature measurement by electrical effect..
Temperature measurement by radiation..
am i right ?

 

[Rap]

chemical

 

[Andy Resnick]

Temperature measurement can be categorize into...how many ?
Temperature measurement by mechanical effect..
Temperature measurement by electrical effect..
Temperature measurement by radiation..
am i right ?

Interesting question.

Omega Engineering has a *large* book on temperature measurement devices. Most of the devices measure electrical changes (thermistors, thermocouples, RTD (resistance temperature detector)), mechanical changes (glass bulb thermometers), or spectroscopic (optical) detectors. They also offer colorimetric indicators (thermochromic dyes). There's also a section on cryogenic devices- most are RTD, but I imagine there are some exotic technologies (paramagnetism?) once you get below 1 K.

Finally, there are triple-point devices which serve as temperature standards (and I think can be used to measure temperature as well by measuring the vapor pressure)- I'm not sure how best to characterize them.

http://www.omega.com/literature/

Something to note- infrared/non-contact temperature probes don't really measure a temperature- they measure a 'temperature equivalent' and require certain assumptions and calibrations.

 

[Naty1]

Are you interested in measurements via an inertial vs an accelerating observer?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unruh_effect

 

[f95toli]

Temperature measurement via nuclear decay (Nuclear orientation thermometry).

Not quite the same thing as "radiation" (even if what you detect is gamma radiation).