Posted on 07/11/2013 9:04:34 PM PDT by neverdem
UK scientists want to redefine temperature using the Boltzmann constant, changing the way in which it has been calculated for over 50 years. The group, working at the UKs National Physical Laboratory, published a study today that could make it possible to measure temperature much more accurately in the future.
The current definition of temperature relies upon the triple point of water the state at which water can be ice, liquid and vapour in equilibrium but this makes accurate measurements of extreme temperatures difficult. The team say that the solution is to link the standard unit of temperature, the kelvin, to the Boltzmann constant, a measure of the relationship between kinetic energy and temperature. By making precise measurements of the speed of sound in argon gas the team could gauge the average speed of the gas molecules and therefore their kinetic energy. From this they were then able to calculate the Boltzmann constant
It is fascinating that we worked out how to measure temperature long before we knew what temperature actually was. Now we understand that the temperature of an object is related to the energy of motion of its constituent atoms and molecules, says lead author Michael de Podesta. The new definition directly links the unit of temperature to this basic physical reality.
M de Podesta et al, Metrologia, 2013, DOI: 10.1088/0026-1394/50/4/354
Sounds like a way to further the global warming scam via sheer confusion...
By changing the way they measure temperature, they will instantaneously invalidate all previous temperature measurement data. Then they will come up with some secret formula for correcting the old data to the new standard. Sounds basically like an attempt to rewrite historical data, in a way that they can continue to push the AGW hoax.
It looks to me like this has nothing to do with weather, and a lot more do with accurately measuring more extreme temperatures - cold below -100C and hot above +200C. Not too many place influenced by weather which are even near those extremes.
You aren’t in the market for any property are you?
*grin*
I wouldn’t be surprised, idiot scientists conning the public on the taxpayer’s dime.
It has been a long time since I took graduate level Statistical Thermodynamics, but the idea seems not-unreasonable.
I've been trying to buy a bridge.
This one.
Paging Lord Kelvin.
Paging Lord Kelvin.
You’re needed to set a standard of temperature measurement stat!
(from the Wikipedia: The Kelvin scale is named after the Belfast-born, Glasgow University engineer and physicist William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (18241907), who wrote of the need for an “absolute thermometric scale”)
LoL
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