Talk:Temperature

This wikipage is way too talky and mentions a lot of irrelevant stuff. Is it really necessary to include a graph of the human body temperature over the course of a day and various temperature scales before giving a formal definition and description of what temperature comes from?

I added the thermodynamical definition in the intro and consider moving/deleting several sections that feels like word fillers. 81.225.32.185 (talk) 21:48, 15 September 2023 (UTC)

• Sorry, but I undid your edit: I think there was a formatting error, it messed up the layout of the intro, and I don't see the point of that highly technical thing in the lead. Drmies (talk) 21:51, 15 September 2023 (UTC)
  • I think at least one proper definition is suitable. Compare with the article on momentum. It starts with: "In Newtonian mechanics, momentum (PL: momenta or momentums; more specifically linear momentum or translational momentum) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object." It isn't unreasonable to demand one sentence with a more scientific definition. 81.225.32.185 (talk) 21:56, 15 September 2023 (UTC)
    • A sentence is fine, but that's not really what you wrote. Drmies (talk) 22:26, 17 September 2023 (UTC)

@Remsense: re: Despite the etymology of "thermometer", there are temperature measurement devices or temperature sensors not commonly called thermometers. This is supported by the table of contents of the following textbooks:

• Temperature Measurement and Control
• Principles and Methods of Temperature Measurement
• Temperature Measurement
• Temperature Measurement

Especially temperature imaging devices, such as satellite temperature measurement sensors, are not commonly called "thermometer". A thermometer onboard a satellite would be understood as measuring the satellite body temperature. Likewise, "thermal imaging" could have been called in principle "imaging thermometry", but it's not normally done so. If we don't agree on this, then temperature measurement should be nominated for merging into thermometer, for consistency. See previous related discussion: Talk:Thermometer#Distinction_between_thermometers_and_temperature_sensors. fgnievinski (talk) 01:02, 18 November 2023 (UTC)

I would be fine with a phrasing such as "temperature measurement devices, such as household thermometers." Remsense聊 01:55, 18 November 2023 (UTC)

There may be some confusion about the physics here. Satellites don't measure temperature directly. They do not use temperature sensors, except for monitoring themselves. Instead they measure incoming radiation at various wavelengths and, assuming a model of how the radiation is produced by the radiating body, calculate the temperature. For stars this is a fairly simple process. For measuring temperatures on earth from a satellite this can get quite complicated. The temperature determinations are done back on earth.

There are many names for scientific thermometers. Using a table of contents that lists types of devices by name rather than calling each a thermometer doesn't support your argument. The third book link has 6 chapters titled by type of thermometer. Thermocouples, for example, are in the chapter titled "Thermoelectric thermometers". These are followed by three chapters on pyrometers, which measure incoming radiation and convert that to temperature. While I would call just the first thermometers, with the advent of handheld remote infrared sensor devices such as those that became popular during the epidemic, some of the pyrometers are known as infrared thermometers. Industrial models are now called radiation thermometers. I would say that any device that reads out a result as temperature is considered a thermometer. If the output is radiation readings that need computer processing elsewhere, then it isn't a thermometer. But that is just my opinion on where the field is going.

Temperature measurement is a rather strange article. It starts out as the process of measuring a current local temperature for immediate or later evaluation, then has a section on satellite temperature measurements. I would not merge the articles. Not all determinations of temperature are done using thermometers. It could be rewritten into the top-level article on the subject. StarryGrandma (talk) 14:25, 18 November 2023 (UTC)

As for the sentence in the lead paragraph, I suggest "measured with a thermometer or by other means." This is comprehensive enough that it covers any sort of device or method of determining temperature, including those model-dependent satellite measurements of the earth's temperature. StarryGrandma (talk) 20:52, 19 November 2023 (UTC)

The redirect Hottest has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2025 May 14 § Hottest until a consensus is reached. Steel1943 (talk) 21:01, 14 May 2025 (UTC)

The references to equation numbers in this article don't line up. I don't know how to fix that unfortunately Anselm Schüler (talk) 08:40, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

The first sentence was "Temperature quantitatively expresses the attribute of hotness or coldness." before I edited it to "Temperature is a numerical expression of hotness or coldness." For readability I'd rather it say "Temperature is a measure of hotness or coldness.", but the word "measure" is used in the next sentence. Could the whole first paragraph be rephrased so the first sentence is maximally readable? Amercer1 (talk) 01:05, 19 February 2026 (UTC)