Module 1

Module 1: The International System of Units (SI)

 

Get Started

 

How well can you estimate temperature from how warm or cold an object or environment feels? Try the following test to see how reliable estimating the temperature this way is.

 

Try This

 

In this activity you will put to the test your sense of how warm or cold something feels.

 

 

Prepare three bowls of water as shown. You will fill one bowl with room-temperature water. Then fill another bowl with hot water, and fill the remaining bowl with ice-cold water. Be careful! The hot water should be as hot as you can bear without scalding yourself. The bowl with ice-cold water could contain ice cubes to maintain its temperature.

 

Next, put your left hand in the hot water and your right hand in the ice water. Keep your hands immersed for a count of 30. Then, put both hands in the bowl filled with room-temperature water. What did you notice after you placed your hands in the room-temperature water?

 

Gauging Temperature

 

The human body is not a good gauge of temperature. If you’ve been outside on a cold day and then come indoors, the indoor temperature will feel hot. But, someone coming out of a hot bath into the same room will feel cold.

 

For accurate temperatures, you need a thermometer.

 

Mathematics 10-3 Learn EveryWare © 2010 Alberta Education