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Physics

Specialty Knowledge entries in Physics.

A glass clinical thermometer showing a reading of 38.7 degrees Celsius

Thermometer

A thermometer is an instrument that measures temperature, usually by watching how a substance such as air, alcohol, mercury or a metal changes as it warms or cools. No single person invented it, because the device grew out of earlier thermoscopes that showed heat changes without a numbered scale. Today thermometers range from the sealed

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A thermometer measures temperature, a device that grew from 1600s thermoscopes and now uses liquids, platinum sensors or infrared radiation.

Wavelength

In simple terms Wavelength is the distance from one crest of a wave to the next. It is a length, measured in meters, and for light it is what separates a radio broadcast from a sunbeam. The range is enormous. The shortest wavelengths scientists study are a fraction of the size of an atom. The

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Wavelength is the distance from one wave crest to the next, and it decides whether light is a radio wave, visible color or gamma ray.