Question

The body temperature of a patient is identified as 102°F in a clinical thermometer.Explain how can you say that this temperature is a measure of thermal equilibrium?

Answer 1

when patient gets fever, we use thermometer which contains mercury with low specific heat value as thermometric liquid.
when thermometer and patient are in thermal contact, mercury will absorbs the heat energy and shows the increase in temperature . This exchange of heat takes place till patient and thermometer attain same temperature.
As heat energy increases, temperature reading of thermometer increases till the temperatures become equal.
Hence temperature is a measure of thermal equilibrium.