What Do Thermometers And Barometers Actually Measure?
The thermometer does not measure the kinetic energy of the molecules in the atmosphere and the barometer does not record the pressure or weight of the molecules in the atmosphere.
The only difference in the design of the two instruments is that a thermometer has its measuring liquid totally enclosed while the barometer has the reservoir exposed to the atmosphere.
Both are measuring data from the gas molecules in the atmosphere, but somehow people believe that the little piece of glass enclosing the bulb of the thermometer is converting the units of the data from weight per unit area to mass times velocity squared.
In the troposphere the transfer of energy is primarily done through convection or collisions by the gas molecules while in the layers above the troposphere the primary way energy is transferred is by radiation. With convection there is a direct transfer of energy between objects while with radiation objects transfer energy to and absorb energy from the energy field they are in.
All objects with energy will radiate energy and all objects will absorb radiated energy until stasis is reached, where the energy being radiated is the same as the energy being absorbed. With radiation the transfer of energy declines as the energy of an object approaches the energy of the surrounding field while with collisions there is instantaneous transfer of energy from the object with more energy to the other object.
With convection the energy is distributed equally to the mass of both objects.
With convection the transfer of energy does not follow the laws of radiation but the transfer is done according to the laws of conservation of momentum. With radiation an object with more kinetic energy cannot gain energy from an object with less kinetic energy but with convection a “colder” object can transfer energy to an object with more kinetic energy.
When there is a collision, energy is transferred from the object with greater velocity to the object with less velocity, regardless of the masses of the objects.
In reality the atmosphere does not have distinct layers but has a gradual changing of density and composition as the altitude changes. The layers are artificial demarcations
with the most being of layers reflecting temperature flow changes. The troposphere, or bottom layer of the atmosphere, is the where the temperature declines and liquid water moderates the flow of energy. In the higher atmosphere (stratosphere increasing temperature, mesosphere decreasing temperature, and thermosphere increasing temperature) radiation is the primary way energy is transferred and the flow of energy will follow the rules of radiation.
Because objects radiate energy in all directions, gas molecules with greater energy will transfer energy to gas molecules with less energy slowing the rate at which they cool. The absorption and loss of energy in the atmosphere is greatest in the thermosphere where the energy being radiated by the sun is greatest and it must cool before lower molecules cool.
The source of energy at an altitude of fifty one kilometers heating the stratosphere remains a mystery.
THERMOMETER
A thermometer is used to measure the energy of gasses in the troposphere and it is measuring the momentum of the molecules striking it not radiated energy. What radiation an object can absorb is limited by the structure of the object so the wavelengths of radiated energy a thermometer could absorb would depend on the materials it was made from.
The instrument was designed to measure the flow of kinetic energy from one medium to another but when the entire instrument is exposed to one medium, as in the atmosphere, it will measure the energy of that medium not a flow of energy. As the medium it is in changes, the thermometer will adjust to equalize with these changes and since momentum is a measurement of mass times the velocity as either of these factors change, it will produce a change in the thermometer’s reading. When the energy of the molecules change this will change the amount of energy being transferred to the thermometer and also, as the number (or mass) of the molecules change the amount of energy being transferred will change.
The measurement by the thermometer is of the amount of energy being transferred to it, not the magnitude or kinetic energy of the molecules. The instrument has no way of distinguishing if the amount of energy it receives comes from many molecules with little energy or few molecules with greater energy.
A look at the graph of temperatures at different altitudes clearly shows that the thermometer is not measuring the kinetic energy of the molecules. The flow of energy does not pause or reverse directions it goes from higher energy to lower energy. The graph is a result of both the mass (number of molecules transferring energy) and the energy of the molecules changing as the altitude changes. In order to compare the kinetic energy of the molecules in the atmosphere you must divide the measured temperature at an altitude by the density at that altitude.
This will give the energy of a constant number of molecules instead of the energy of a constant volume.
The graph of temperature divided by density shows that the energy in the atmosphere is increasing with increasing altitude. The energy of the gas molecules in the troposphere,
where water moderates the flow of energy, increases in a straight line with altitude while at higher altitudes the kinetic energy of molecules increases in an exponential curve as the energy is distributed to more and more molecules.
This shows that the flow of energy is from the sun to the surface of the Earth and water is absorbing that energy from the surface and transporting it higher to the stratosphere where it is radiated into space.
The reason it is warmer at lower altitudes is not because the gas molecules have more energy but because there are more of them transferring energy and even though the magnitude of the energy is decreasing the amount of energy transferred increases.
The atmosphere is created by the energy of the molecules expanding against gravity and the idea that these molecules will gain energy from gravity as they descend as a result of
losing energy is ridiculous.
There are two factors controlling the flow of energy in the troposphere, the energy coming from the sun adding energy to the atmosphere and the Earth and water removing energy from the Earth and atmosphere and transporting that energy to the top of the troposphere to be radiated into space.
The sun heats the atmosphere as oxygen and nitrogen gasses absorb radiated ultraviolet energy (all matter absorbs radiated energy) and converts it into infrared energy while the
surface of the Earth absorbs the longer wavelengths of visible light and converts these wavelengths into infrared energy. Over ninety percent of the ultraviolet light coming to the Earth is absorbed in the atmosphere heating it. Because the law of conservation of momentum applies in the troposphere the gas molecules in the atmosphere with greater velocity will add to the energy of the Earth even though the surface of the Earth is warmer (radiating more energy). It is the atmosphere that is adding heat to the surface of the Earth, not the Earth heating the atmosphere.
Water absorbs the infrared energy emitted by the surface and the gasses in the atmosphere and converts this radiated energy into internal energy. Water in the atmosphere is not a gas but micro droplets of liquid crystals. The phase chart of water shows that at standard atmospheric pressure water as a gas does not exist below its boiling point. (James McGinn) Infrared radiation causes some water to split into hydroxyl and hydrogen ions.
The water is converting thermal energy into stored electrical energy. The hydroxyl ions combine with other water molecules to form a crystal shell around the hydronium ion. (See Dr. Gerald Pollack’s experiments showing how water is a liquid crystal.) As more energy is absorbed the thickness of the crystal shell grows producing a larger negative charge that causes the water micro droplets to rise in the atmosphere. When the liquid crystals reach the top of the troposphere they reach the second melt point of a liquid crystal and the electric energy is converted back into infrared energy and radiated into space.
The Earth’s surface has a negative that causes the liquid crystals to rise in the atmosphere. The negative charge of these crystals repels electrons on the surface of the Earth causing the area under thunderclouds to have a positive charge. When the liquid crystals melt and the electric charges neutralize, releasing the stored energy into space, the electrons on the surface of the Earth surge back creating lightning.
Confirmation supporting this nature of water can be seen when water is boiled in a tea kettle. The water emerges as a clear gas and then, as it cools, converts to liquid water droplets. On further cooling these droplets disappear. If this was due to the water converting back to a gas the droplets would have to absorb more than the 540 calories/gram needed to convert 100C water into 100C steam.
This is because as the crystal melts it releases the internal heat but by boiling the water, these crystals are destroyed and the internal energy released in the process. Also if water were a gas because of its low molecular weight it would be found at higher altitudes and not almost exclusively in the troposphere.
BAROMETER
Objects do not radiate or transfer mass. It is only when in contact or joining with another object that mass will combine. You do not feel and increase in atmospheric pressure when an airplane flies overhead. The idea that mass of gas molecules in the atmosphere are somehow combining to produce an atmospheric pressure is false.
The barometer is not measuring mass but, like the thermometer, the momentum of the gas molecules. The atmosphere is created by the kinetic energy of the gas molecules expanding against gravity. As long as the kinetic energy of argon, oxygen and nitrogen molecules are greater than their boiling point the mass of the atmosphere will be fairly constant, it is the
density of the gasses that will change.
As more energy is added to these gasses their volume expands and when the energy of the molecules decreases, the volume shrinks. The fact that the atmosphere grows less dense with altitude even when the reading of the thermometer records decreasing temperature shows that the thermometer is not measuring the kinetic energy of the molecules but the amount of energy.
One would expect that a cold air, mass with its greater density, would register a higher barometric pressure than a warm air mass where there are fewer molecules per unit volume. This is not the case. A warm calm air mass has a greater barometric pressure than a cold low pressure area despite there being fewer gas molecules. A cold violent air mass is a low pressure area while a warm calm air mass is a high pressure area.
This is because the barometer, like the thermometer, is also reading the momentum of the air molecules. In a still high pressure area the momentum is directed vertically downwards by gravity and even though there are fewer molecules per unit volume, they have a greater amount of downward momentum than a denser air mass where the molecules have horizontal velocity.
As horizontal motion is added to the gas molecules they strike the measuring liquid of the barometer at an angle and molecules retain more of their momentum. The greater the
horizontal velocity the lower the energy transferred to the instrument. The barometer is indicating how much of the gravitational momentum is being converted into horizontal flow. The lower the barometric reading the greater the horizontal flow of energy.
When considering the flow of energy in the atmosphere it is important to consider the role of water as a reservoir of energy. Gas molecules with their greater velocity will transfer energy to water when they collide, following the conservation of momentum.
The water will then store this energy as internal electric energy. When the velocity of the gas molecules drops below the energy of the molecules in the shell of the water crystal, the water then adds energy to the gas molecules, acting a storage battery for energy. This is what causes dew to form. It is the storage and release of energy that regulates the temperature on the Earth. When there is a lunar eclipse the temperature on the surface of the moon will drop from +230F to -240F in a matter of minutes, radiating that energy into space (red moon).
On Earth, since most of the energy in the atmosphere is contained in the liquid water crystals this rapid extreme change does not occur.
Hotter air molecules (more kinetic energy) rise and since the source of our energy is the sun, the molecules higher in the atmosphere are hotter (magnitude not amount radiated) than the molecules lower in the atmosphere. The flow of energy is downwards from the sun and then this energy expands outward on the Earth’s surface, not from the warmer (greater amount of energy being radiated) surface of the Earth to the atmosphere. This is a mistaken belief resulting from not knowing what the instruments are measuring.
The Earth is not a perfect sphere but has a larger diameter at the equator. The flow of energy coming from the sun is from the equator and tropics towards the poles. As the energy flow downwards and towards the poles the Earth rotates underneath the flowing energy. This creates an area of high energy from which energy flows to other areas of the planet. During the year the sun is moving north or south in the tropics and as the rotation of the Earth moves under the hot spot the sun produces, the focal point moves west, causing a clockwise rotation of the air mass in the northern hemisphere and a counter clockwise rotation in the southern hemisphere.
This is why hurricanes and typhoons tend to form along the equator after the first day of summer when the focal point is closest to the poles.
At night and during the day when the sun is adding energy to the Earth, water is cooling the Earth’s surface by transporting energy to the stratosphere where it is radiated into space. In order to understand what is happening to the gasses in the atmosphere you must understand the flow of energy in it.
In science you must understand what information your instruments are measuring if you are to gain an understanding of what is happening.
By believing that the thermometer is measuring the kinetic energy of gas molecules instead of the amount of energy being transferred, the processes that are happening in the atmosphere can never be understood and the “science” will consist of studying history then guessing that history will be repeated next time the same circumstances occur.
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Jerry Krause
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Hi Herb,
You write the word “energy” multiple times. What is your definition of “energy”? Are there different types (kinds) of energy?
The publisher of Galileo’s book (Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences), as translated (1914) to English by Crew & de Salvio, wrote to the reader of this book: “Intuitive knowledge keeps pace with accurate definition.”. Do you agree with this common saying of an earlier time?
Have a good day, Jerry
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Herb Rose
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Hi Jerry,
Energy (V^@) is that component of the universe that produces motion while the other component (matter) resists motion.
Your quote is garbage. There is nothing intuitive about knowledge, it is a result of reason. Intuitively everyone knows that heavier objects fall faster than lighter objects and the sun, moon, and stars orbit around the Earth.
Herb
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J. Vilkaitis
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“To measure is easy. To understand what you are measuring, that is an art.” Hugo L. Vilkaitis.
That is the statement he drummed into everyone working with him. Some parts he designed using that philosophy sit on the moon today.
Your statement, “knowledge is a result of reason” is invalid.
Knowledge is the result of observation. Reason is the process of rationalizing observations. Experimentation is the process of proving or disproving that rationalization. We sometimes call that science.
-jvv-
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Herb Rose
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Hi J.V.,
We will disagree on this. It is too easy to be fooled by our observations because we interpret using existing beliefs. Good experimentation should be about answering questions and discovery, not trying to prove existing beliefs. The important observations are the ones that are exceptions to the rules and it is reason that creates understanding. For how many centuries was the Earth the center of the universe until someone wondered while there were five stars (out of millions which makes them statistically insignificant) that didn’t follow the rules? It was reasoning that created the solar system we have now, not observation.
Herb
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Jerry Krause
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Hi Herb, J., and PSI Readers,
Herb writes: “Good experimentation should be about answering questions.” So I ask him: What are your questions?, For it seems he only has unique answers known only to him.
Have a good day, Jerry
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Jerry Krause
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Hi Herb,
Yesterday, I asked you. “What is your definition of “energy?” You have, as I compose this comment, not yet attempted to answer this question.
Have a good day, Jerry
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Jerry Krause
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Hi Herb,
Your article is about the measurement of temperature with the common instrument known as a thermometer. I have written a few articles about Horace de Saussure’s instrument (Hot Box) with which he attempted to answer the question: To what high temperature could solar radiation heat the interior of his hot box as measured by a thermometer which had been invented at that earlier time. For he knew that others were using invented glass lenses to ignite combustible matter on fire.
And to invent his ‘hot box’ he used the observation that ‘glass windows’ were being used to enclose interior spaces of rooms to be lighted during the daytime with the result that the room was warmed more than a room with opaque walls and ceilings, or open windows.
And he discovered that his hot box could be warmed above the temperature of boiling water when he triple “glazed” his hot box with three panes of glass. For a fact about the thermometer he used, and we still use, had been “calibrated” with ice water and boiling water.
Given these “historical facts” about Horace’s experiments, do you really expect PSI Readers to believe what you write? Yes, this question is an experiment because I do not know what your reply, if any, will be.
Have a good day, Jerry
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Herb Rose
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Jerry,
If you submerge a thermometer into boiling water it will record a temperature greater than 100C even though the water doesn’t get over 100C.
I never expect you to believe anything I write because you cannot think. (you cannot read either. If you look at my other reply you will see how I define energy (V^2).) I hope PSI readers can think. You have opinions, that you often repeat which you consider as true even though they make no sense. (please explain how your “law” that the dew point is an impenetrable minimum temperature for the atmosphere disproves that green house gases cannot raise the temperature of the atmosphere.)
Why don’t you stop reading (?) what I write since the only purpose is to make a comment with some trite quote?
Herb
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Howdy
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When I was in school, I learned that the molecules of boiling water collide, their combined temperature exceeding 100 degrees, and that is how they manage to escape the water, as steam. Thus steaming is hotter than boiling.
Herb Rose
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Hi Howdy,
Energy flows from high to lower. When equilibrium is reached the flow of energy stops. If one object has more mass, energy will continue to flow until all molecules achieve the same amount of energy. The energy of a molecule will not exceed the energy of the source.
A thermometer is not measuring the kinetic energy but amount of energy that it is absorbing.
Herb
Jerry Krause
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Hi Herb,
Another historical fact is that Horace lived in Switzerland and I read that he had carried his “hot box” up mountains to see (test) if this would change the maximum temperature measured. For Hoarce invented his first hot box in 1767 and I read that the barometer had been invented in 1643. So it was well known in 1767 that the atmospheric pressure decreased significantly with increasing elevation. And once a thermometer had been invented it became known that the temperature of boiling water was not a constant like the temperature of ice water seemed to be.
Hence, given this history I can understand how Horace could have questioned if the maximum temperature of his hot box might change with increasing elevation. Given the “uncertainty’ of his previous measurements, he had to conclude that elevation did not seem to be a factor.
However, these early reproducible measurements made with both the barometer and the thermometer have convinced the scientific community that these two early scientific instruments do measure, with good precision, temperature and atmospheric pressure.
Do you still insist that they do not? As I submit this comment, I read that you have already responded to mine question. However, if one reads about the history of SCIENCE, one will find possible mistakes like either Herb or I am making, are common and Herb is providing context for comments I have not recently made. So as long as Herb makes his comments, I will continue to make mine. Which is an effort to inform a reader not familiar with the knowable history of SCIENCE.
Have a good day, Jerry
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Herb Rose
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Jerry,
Why do you not read what is written. How do these instruments get the data they are measuring? Is it from air molecules colliding with them?
Herb
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Peter Connett
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Thanks for the clarification.
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Charles Higley
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” with convection a “colder” object can transfer energy to an object with more kinetic energy.”
No, this is backward. A cold particle colliding with a hot particle would end up absorbing energy from the hot particles, thus making the hot particle cooler, just like a hot solid surface heats the colder gas particles colliding with it. You have to be careful o get it right.
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Herb Rose
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Hi Charles,
With convection momentum is conserved (M1V1 + M2V2 = M1V3 +M2V4) and velocity (energy) flows from the object with greater velocity to the object with less velocity regardless of the objects’ mass. A small fast moving car colliding with the rear of a large slower truck does not speed up because the truck has more kinetic energy. See my articles in PSI “How Cold Heats Hot” and “Energydynamics”.
Herb
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