EFFECTS OF TEMPERATURE

Many physical processes are affected by temperature, such as:

1. physical properties of materials including the phase (solid, liquid, gaseous or plasma), density,
solubility, vapor pressure, electrical conductivity

2. rate and extent to which chemical reactions occur

3. the amount and properties of thermal radiation emitted from the surface of an object

4. speed of sound is a function of the square root of the absolute temperature

KINETIC THEORY APPROACH TO TEMPERATURE

Kinetic theory provides a microscopic explanation of temperature, based on macroscopic systems' being
composed of many microscopic particles, such as molecules and ions of various species, the particles of
a species being all alike. It explains macroscopic phenomena through the classical mechanics of the
microscopic particles. The equipartition theorem of kinetic theory asserts that each classical degree of
freedom of a freely moving particle has an average kinetic energy of kBT/2 where kB denotes
Boltzmann's constant. The translational motion of the particle has three degrees of freedom, so that,
except at very low temperatures where quantum effects predominate, the average translational kinetic
energy of a freely moving particle in a system with temperature T will be 3kBT/2.

It is possible to measure the average kinetic energy of constituent microscopic particles if they are
allowed to escape from the bulk of the system. The spectrum of velocities has to be measured, and the
average calculated from that. It is not necessarily the case that the particles that escape and are
measured have the same velocity distribution as the particles that remain in the bulk of the system, but
sometimes a good sample is possible.

Molecules, such as oxygen (O2), have more degrees of freedom than single spherical atoms: they
undergo rotational and vibrational motions as well as translations. Heating results in an increase in
temperature due to an increase in the average translational kinetic energy of the molecules. Heating will
also cause, through equipartitioning, the energy associated with vibrational and rotational modes to
increase. Thus a diatomic gas will require more energy input to increase its temperature by a certain
amount, i.e. it will have a greater heat capacity than a monatomic gas.

The process of cooling involves removing internal energy from a system. When no more energy can be
removed, the system is at absolute zero, though this cannot be achieved experimentally. Absolute zero is
the null point of the thermodynamic temperature scale, also called absolute temperature. If it were
possible to cool a system to absolute zero, all classical motion of its particles would cease and they
would be at complete rest in this classical sense. Microscopically in the description of quantum
mechanics, however, matter still has zero-point energy even at absolute zero, because of the uncertainty
principle.

TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT

Temperature measurement using modern scientific thermometers and temperature scales goes back at
least as far as the early 18th century, when Gabriel Fahrenheit adapted a thermometer (switching to
mercury) and a scale both developed by Ole Christensen Rmer. Fahrenheit's scale is still in use in the
United States for non-scientific applications.

Temperature is measured with thermometers that may be calibrated to a variety of temperature scales.
In most of the world (except for Belize, Myanmar, Liberia and the United States), the Celsius scale is used
for most temperature measuring purposes. Most scientists measure temperature using the Celsius scale
and thermodynamic temperature using the Kelvin scale, which is the Celsius scale offset so that its null
point is 0K = 273.15C, or absolute zero. Many engineering fields in the U.S., notably high-tech and US
federal specifications (civil and military), also use the Kelvin and Celsius scales. Other engineering fields
in the U.S. also rely upon the Rankine scale (a shifted Fahrenheit scale) when working in thermodynamic-
related disciplines such as combustion.

CONVERSION

Conversion

The following table shows the temperature conversion formulas for conversions to and from the Celsius
scale.
DATA ACQUISITION

Thermocouple Systems

The circuit of Figure 1 measures exhaust gas temperature in a furnace. The 10-bit LTC1091A gives 0.5C

resolution over a 0C to 500C range. The LTC1052

amplifi es and fi lters the thermocouple signal, the

LT1025A provides cold junction compensation and

the LT1019A provides an accurate reference. The J

type thermocouple characteristic is linearized digitally

inside the MCU. Linear interpolation between known

temperature points spaced 30C apart introduces less

than 0.1C error. The code for linearizing is available

from LTC. The 1024 steps provided by the LTC1091 (24

more than the required 1000) insure 0.5C resolution

even with the thermocouple curvature.4

Offset error is dominated by the LT1025 cold junction

compensator which introduces 0.5C maximum. Gain

error is 0.75C max because of the 0.1% gain resistors

and to a lesser extent the output voltage tolerance of

the LT1019A and the gain error of the LTC1091A. It may

be reduced by trimming the LT1019A or gain resistors.

The LTC1091A keeps linearity better than 0.25C. The

LTC1050s 5V offset contributes negligible error (0.1C

or less). Combined errors are typically 0.5C or less.

These errors dont include the thermocouple itself. In

practice, connection and wire errors of 0.5C to 1C

are not uncommon. With care, these errors can be

kept below 0.5C.

The 20k/10k divider on CH1 of the LTC1091 provides

low supply voltage detection (the LT1019A reference

requires a minimum supply of 6.5V to maintain accuracy). Remote location is easy, with data transferred

from the MCU to the LTC1091 via the 3 wire serial port.5