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Thermometers using REAL Mercury will not freeze at common air temperatures, which can be slightly below the freezing point of water 0°C. This is because mercury does not become a solid (at normal pressure) until it cools below its melting/freezing point, which is -38.83 °C (-37.89 °F, 234.32 K).

However, most inexpensive thermometers use a colored mix of alcohol and water, with other compounds in solution. These can freeze at some exterior temperatures (-10° to -15° C depending on the mixture). Because water is used, the expansion may crack the thermometer's reservoir.

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Q: Will an alcohol thermometer break if the temperature falls below the freezing point of alcohol?
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Was it possible for William shakespeare to find out the temperature?

Not with a thermometer, which had not yet been invented. It was, of course, possible to determine whether the temperature was below freezing or not without the assistance of a thermometer.


What are the disadvantages of using a water-in-glass thermometer to measure outside air temperature?

Well it won't work below freezing.


What is sub freezing temperature?

temperature below freezing point of water.


Temperature below freezing means snow?

Snow does occur when temperature is below freezing because snow is just frozen rain . Lets say it rains , and the temperature is below freezing , that rain would become snow . So temperature below freezing means having snow is true .


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The outside temperature is at or below the freezing point , so there might be ice on the road surface that makes it slippery


Who inventor of thermometer?

Many people devised thermometers, some of them now forgotten. Three important contributors were Newton, who made a simple, 8-degree thermometer, Fahrenheit, who refined Newton's thermometer, and Celsius, who made the metric thermometer most commonly used today (except in the United States). The Newton/Fahrenheit thermometer was scaled from "zero," the freezing point of alcohol (since below that, an alcohol thermometer wouldn't work) to 96 (8 in Newton's version) which was thought to be human body temperature. Later measurements revised this to 98.6. Celsius used the freezing and boiling points of water at sea level for his 100-degree range. Interestingly, he marked his thermometer "upside down" with boiling at zero and freezing at 100. This was later inverted to the now-familiar "Centigrade" version, although by coincidence, "C" can also stand for "Celsius."


Why do people use alcohol in thermometers instead of water?

Firstly, mercury has a freezing point of about -38Co. So a mercury thermometer cannot be used below this. Alcohols have a much lower freezing point, some around -100Co . Thus they are useful at much lower temperatures. Though alcohols are usually colourless, they can easily be dyed, usually red or blue. Alcohols however have lower boiling points, and this limits the maximum temperature at which they may be used.


Why wouldn't you take a mercury in glass thermometer with you to south pole?

If I only had those 2 choices... I would use ALCOHOL since Mercury freezes at -38.72° Celsius. The North Pole can get down below -50° Celsius. Ethanol (alcohol) freezes at -114 ° Celsius Methanol (alcohol) freezes at -97.8° Celsius


Water drops that fall when the temperature is below freezing fall as?

Water drops that fall when the temperature is below freezing, fall as SNOW . Water drops that fall when the temperature is above freezing fall as RAIN .


What is below permafrost?

Below permafrost is below freezing temperature (0c)


What freezes quicker water or rubbing alcohol?

Water. Although it's not really that it freezes faster but rather that it freezes at a higher temperature. How fast something freezes has to do with both its freezing point but also how much of it you have. A drop of alcohol will freeze faster than a giant container of water (assuming the temperature of the freezer is below the freezing point of alcohol).


What conditions are required for it to sleet?

ground temperature below freezing, and air temperature slightly above freezing.