Importance of Temperature

If we are told the word temperature, perhaps at least two terms will immediately come to mind: hot and cold. Now, these are states of temperature, which respond to characteristics specific, but Why can a body transmit heat or transmit cold, respectively? Temperature It is the product of the internal energy of a body, which has a relevant characteristic: the thermodynamics, or the ability to generate kinetic energy, which is energy that is produced by the motion, that is, the movement of all the particles that make up that specific body. The particles, through movement, generate heat, which is immediately translated into variations in body temperature.

At the same time, bodies are capable of transmitting that heat, through conduction or convection. For example, if I put a piece of metal on a kitchen burner over low heat, and after five minutes I touch the metal, it probably conducts to me the heat that your body has generated. On the other hand, in the case of heaters, for example, it is not necessary that I have to touch it for the heat to conduct me, but that I can receive the heat that radiates from a few meters away, because it acts through convection of the heat.

The temperature of a body can be measured by means of a special device designed and developed for this purpose: the thermometer.. The thermometer is calibrated, according to the scale to which it belongs to measure the temperature. Within the International System of Units, the unit of measurement of temperature is the scale Kelvin, whose symbol is K. This unit of measurement is used in scientific fields, but not on a daily basis. However, in everyday settings the scales used are different: in Europe and Latin America the scale Celsius, whose symbol is C; while in the United States the temperature measurement scale is Fahrenheit, symbolized with the letter F.

humans and many animals They have the ability to regulate their temperature naturally, that is, they do not need any strength or will to adapt to the external environment, but they carry out this process in a involuntary. For example, if we are used to living in a place where the temperature is around 25 degrees, and we move to a space where the temperature is close to zero degrees, our body will begin to adapt metabolism natural to that environment. Instead, other bodies, like some insects, must voluntarily achieve temperature regulation. For example, an insect to survive at a temperature of 40 degrees, must move to find a space away from the sun's rays, such as under a rock, where the temperature can be less.