Both alcohol and mercury thermometers are effective for measuring temperature, but alcohol thermometers are generally safer to use due to the toxicity of mercury. However, mercury thermometers provide more accurate readings at higher temperatures compared to alcohol thermometers.
A Mercury thermometer (but not a medical one!)
A mercury thermometer (but not a medical one!)
it would be really hot
I would take an alcohol thermometer because it can accurately measure temperatures as low as -70 degrees Celsius, whereas a mercury thermometer may not work reliably at such low temperatures. Additionally, alcohol is less likely to freeze at extremely cold temperatures compared to mercury.
Alcohol would be used in a thermometer to measure temperatures at the North Pole because it has a lower freezing point than Mercury. Alcohol remains liquid at colder temperatures, making it suitable for use in extreme cold environments like the North Pole. Mercury would freeze at the very low temperatures experienced at the North Pole.
It could be used to do this - it is capable of doing it. However, Mercury is poisonous and a mercury thermometer is made out of fragile glass. Thus the danger that the thermometer would break releasing mercury into the milk (which would be for a person to drink) means that a mercury thermomiter is not the temperature sensor to use in this instance.
Alcohol can be used to measure temperature because it has a relatively wide range of temperatures at which it remains liquid, although not as wide as mercury. However, alcohol is both less toxic and less expensive than mercury.
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
There is no mechanical difference between a kelvin thermometer and any other kind so I think it would be the same as other thermometers i.e. Alcohol (because it is not as dangerous as mercury)
Thermometers usually have alcohol in them any way or sometimes poisonous liquid magnets so not much would happen to it
Mercury has two advantages over alcohol when it comes to measuring pressure in a manometer: 1) it is far denser than alcohol. A column of mercury need only be about 760 mm ( about 3/4 of a meter) high to exert a pressure equal to atmospheric pressure at sea level. Alcohol would have to be over 13 meters high to reach the same pressure! (rather impractical) 2) Mercury has a very low vapor pressure so it doesn't evaporate when exposed to the atmosphere. It also contributes a negligible amount of pressure above the column on the sealed end of the manometer for pretty much any atmospheric temperature. Alcohol has a significant vapor pressure so it would tend to evaporate when exposed to the atmosphere. It also has a high enough vapor pressure that it would contribute a noticeable amount of pressure on the sealed end of the manometer - and the pressure would vary quite noticeably over the range of temperatures that atmospheric manometers are commonly exposed to - so the manometer reading would always have to be corrected for temperature - more so than the mercury manometer must be.