Question

A thermometer placed under the armpit always shows a lower value than the real body temperature. Find out which type of error is represented in its measurement?

Answer 1

Hint: The tongue and rectum are the most accessible areas of the human body that will be in the core temperature. The area under the tongue is more preferable. The regions under the tongue and rectum are inconvenient places for a child to keep the thermometer there long enough. This all will help you in answering this question.

Complete step by step answer:
The aim is to measure the core temperature, the temperature of the interior parts of the human body. The tongue and rectum are the most accessible areas of the human body that will be in the core temperature. The area under the tongue is more preferable. It is also full of blood vessels, and the measurement is almost as accurate as the rectal area. Tongue is a much more pleasant place to use a thermometer. Sometimes the armpit will also be used for the kids generally as it is very tough for the kids to keep it and also inconvenient for them to hold the thermometer under the tongue. This makes the regions under the tongue and rectum become inconvenient places for a child to keep the thermometer there long enough. This is why armpits are chosen. The kids can hold the thermometer there even for a quite long period of time. The armpit will not be showing the accurate measurement as tongue and the rectum as they are the most accessible area for the measurement of the core temperature. This can be taken as the random error as the nature of the kids and its difficulties are the reason for faulty measurement. Hence the question is answered.

Note:
A thermometer is a device or a thermal equipment in order to measure the temperature of the human body and other objects also. This will be a graduated tube with mercury inside it. At one end there will be a bulb which is the portion to be kept for the measurement.