Our sense of touch is riliable enough to determine the hotness and coldness of a substance
Answers
Answer:
I would argue that you can. With any measurement device, there are several items to take into account, such as the accuracy, precision, and measurement step. Let’s take a look at this graphic:
Accuracy refers to how close you are to a given target.
Precision refers to how tightly grouped your measurements are.
Measurement step, which is not shown in the image, is what is used as one sensible unit.
As you can see, it is generally desirable to have a temperature sensor that is both accurate and precise, and generally, for scientific research, the most accurate and precise measurement tool is used. For baking a pie, accuracy and precision are not nearly as necessary, so people are often satisfied to trust the knob on their oven to be correct.(Since it is rarely if ever recalibrated, this is more like the top left corner of the image than the bottom right)
So, since we know that when we are sweating because it is hot out, it must be in the 80’s, if temperature is comfortable, it must be around 74, if we feel a slight chill it must be around 60, and if we need a jacket, or heavy coat, then we must be in the 50's, and 30's respectively. ( This is how my internal thermometer is set, so feel free to comment if your level of comfort is different, but for the sake of my argument, assume that these temperatures work for you as well)
This brings us back to measurement step. In digital scales, an analog weight signal, usually from a strain gauge or something similar, is converted into a digital output that can be read as a weight. If the scale has a 512 bit analog to digital encoder, that means that there are essentially 512 slots that can be used for readings. If you were to have a scale that weighed from 0–511 lbs, you would have 1 lb increments you could weigh to, so this would be your measurement step. The circuitry inside the scale would round up and down anything that was not an even pound, so someone who stepped on the scale, and weighed 170.8 lbs would register as 171 lbs. Anything less than the minimum or more than the maximum would be read as the minimum and maximum of the scale respectively.(Conversely, if you were to shrink the measurement range, from 0–255 lbs, you could weigh to the half lb.)
What does all this weighing have to do with the question?(Other than you being able to shave off a vanity pound of weight and sound smart in front of your friends all at once.) Well, the same is true for any measurement scale, not just digital scales. In our case, mercury thermometers have a scale of lines, and you read where the liquid is on the scale to get a temperature. There are even thermocouples, which can be used to read temperature digitally, which use the same analog to digital encoder.
So, in our case, we are looking to use our sense of touch to measure temperature quantitatively. I choose to define a new temperature measurement scale, and since the other guys who made scales, Celsius and Fahrenheit got to name them after themselves, I will name my scale the Merkel temperature scale. Since I am used to working with Fahrenheit, I will start by defining my scale so that 1 °Merkel = 10° Fahrenheit(I’ll let you convert that to Celsius).
With this scale in hand, I can now walk around outside, and tell you with a moderate level of accuracy and precision, within a range from -2–10 °M, what the temperature is.
If it is -2°M, I will be chattering in the teeth and shivering uncontrollably, while cursing the fact that I am outdoors and attempting to cover any portion of exposed skin.
So you see, by choosing a large enough scale step, I am able to accurately measure temperature using only my sense of touch. The same is true for Fahrenheit(an I imagine less so for Celsius), but your accuracy and precision begin to drop.
Please feel free to use the Merkel temperature scale, as most temperatures would rank from 1–10, which makes it easy to rank how hot you feel, on a scale from 1–10.
Answer:
Our sense of touch about hotness or coldness is not always reliable because we feel the temperature of our own skin not the actual hotness or coldness of the particular object. The actual hotness or coldness is measured by the thermometer.
Answer:
Our sense of touch about hotness or coldness is not always reliable because we feel the temperature of our own skin not the actual hotness or coldness of the particular object. The actual hotness or coldness is measured by the thermometer.