Question

In what ways is a clinical thermometer different from laboratory thermometer?

Answer 1

Hint: In the question like these where we have to find the difference between two things, we will first have to think of what is the use of the things, what are their applications, etc. Then only we can reach the conclusion of finding the difference between the two things.

Complete step-by-step solution:
Let us first discuss what is a clinical thermometer and what is a laboratory thermometer? What are their uses and applications? This will help us to lead towards the difference between the clinical thermometer and laboratory thermometer.
We know that both clinical thermometer and laboratory thermometer are used to measure the hotness and coldness of a body but the clinical thermometer is the one that is used to measure human body temperatures so is used in homes and hospitals where as laboratory thermometer being a complex device is not used for this purpose; as the range of the thermometer is very high that’s why it is used for measuring temperature of objects that have very high or very low temperature and is used in research centers. This is one of the major differences between the clinical thermometer and laboratory thermometer.
The differences between the clinical thermometer and laboratory thermometer are as follows:
The temperature range of clinical thermometer lies between 35 degree centigrade to 42 degree centigrade whereas the temperature range of laboratory thermometer is between -10 degree centigrade to 110 degree centigrade which is very high as compared to clinical thermometer.
Clinical thermometer has kink present inside the thermometer which helps prevent the backflow of the mercury but this kink is not present in the laboratory thermometer. That’s why we can tilt the clinical thermometer while checking the reading but we cannot tilt laboratory thermometer cannot be tilted.
Both the clinical thermometer and laboratory thermometer have different least counts.
Note: Apart from having the difference between the clinical thermometer and laboratory thermometer both of them also have similarities like both the thermometers contain mercury in them whose level helps to take reading also both of them have Celsius scale for reading.