Temperature, cold and hot places

How hot or cold something is is called temperature. Special spots on the skin feel hot and cold, but testing with the hand can be dangerous, so we use a thermometer. “Termo” means heat and “metr” means measure. In the simplest thermometer the liquid in a glass tube rises in the heat and falls in the cold; there are electronic thermometers too. Temperature is measured in degrees and written with °C. Water freezes at 0 °C and boils at 100 °C. Temperatures above zero are written with “+”, below zero with “−”. There are air, water and body thermometers. A healthy person’s body temperature is about 36.6 °C. A thermometer reads body temperature in 5–10 minutes under the arm. Mercury thermometers are used only under adult supervision; if one breaks, we do not touch it and tell an adult at once.