"Published in Newark, California, USA"
The students are performing their experiment in Physics Lab to observe and record the temperature of freezing water and boiling water with the use of ºC thermometer and ºF thermometer. At their first experiment, the two thermometers are dipped together in a beaker filled with water. If a beaker is placed inside the freezer, the water is starting to freeze at 0 ºC and 32 ºF. At their second experiment, the two thermometers are dipped together in another beaker filled with water. If a beaker is placed at the top of the heating plate, the water is starting to boil at 100 ºC and 212 ºF. From the temperature readings of two thermometers, how do you convert the temperature reading from ºC to ºF and vice versa? At what temperature is the ºC and ºF readings will be equal?
Solution:
The first thing that you have to do is to draw the two thermometers with the observed temperature readings for the freezing point and boiling point of water.
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| Photo by Math Principles in Everyday Life |
Next, we have to assign the unknown readings at the middle of the two thermometers. From the given figure, the problem type is likely the ratio and proportion. Further label the figure, we have,
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| Photo by Math Principles in Everyday Life |
Using the ratio and proportion,
or we can rewrite the above equation as
If oF = oC,
