A resistance thermometer using platinum as its sensing material. It provides the temperature readout in the saturation-pressure equilibrium measurement.
Transduction turns electrical resistance into a temperature indication. A uniform wire has , with electrical resistivity , length , and cross-sectional area . Stronger atomic vibrations at higher temperature scatter Electrons more, increasing platinum's electrical resistivity; impurities and crystallographic defects also contribute.[ref]
A small known electric current and measured electric potential difference give through Ohm's law; a resistance bridge can instead compare the element with a reference resistor. Inverting the calibrated response then gives the sensing element's temperature. This makes electrical readout convenient, but the platinum resistance thermometer lead resistance error, resistance thermometer self-heating, and resistance thermometer immersion test explain why a stable display alone is insufficient. The gas thermometer supplies a contrasting route through an equation of state; the saturation-pressure equilibrium measurement shows why a trustworthy independent temperature readout matters.
Resistance thermometer 2026-10-14
A thermometer that infers temperature from a calibrated electrical resistance. Measuring current can heat its sensing element; extrapolation toward zero current controls that bias in the saturation-pressure equilibrium measurement.
Measuring electric current creates Joule heating, raising the sensing temperature. At fixed bath temperature, compare settled readings at and and extrapolate the approximately linear dependence toward zero current.[ref]
Under the local model ,
For synthetic readings at and at , the extrapolated value is . The lower-current excess corresponds to in the Pt100 local linear model. At , dissipates ; power alone does not specify a temperature rise without a thermal coupling model. These stipulated values are not measurements.
Repeat the comparison after settling and test the approximation if necessary. Changing from liquid to air changes heat transfer; a self-heating correction need not transfer unchanged. The saturation-pressure equilibrium measurement provides an existing example of controlling this disturbance in resistance thermometry.