Question

Four different thermometers were used to measure the temperature of a sample of pure boiling water. The measurements are recorded in the table below.

Thermometer Temperature
Reading 1 Temperature
Reading 2 Temperature
Reading 3
W 100.1°C 99.9°C 96.9°C
X 100.4°C 102.3°C 101.4°C
Y 90.0°C 95.2°C 98.6°C
Z 90.8°C 90.6°C 90.7°C

The actual boiling point of pure water is 100.0°C.

What can be concluded from the data about the reliability and validity of the thermometers?

Answer 1

Thermometre Z is more reliable because after applying required correction it would give more trustable result as its reading are not showing much deviation.

Answer 2

Let us see what are the conclusions that can be drawn here:

For Thermometer 1 - the initial 2 readings are exact but the 3rd one is a little off the way.

So we know that this cannot be used for any kind of measurements.

Thermometer 2 - All the readings are correct but when the average is calculated, it is close to the accurate value.

This can be used.

Thermometer 3 - None of the values are correct. so it is not relaible at all.

Thermometer 4 - All the values are error free but it is not anywhere close to the actual temperature. so this too cannot be used.