Question

A student is doing an experiment to determine the effects of temperature on an object. He writes down that the initial temperature of the object was –3.5 ºK. Identify two errors in the student’s recorded temperature.

Answer 1

Answer:

1) The Kelvin temperature cannot be negative

2) The Kelvin degree is written as K, not ºK

Explanation:

The temperature of an object can be written using different temperature scales.

The two most important scales are:

- Celsius scale: the Celsius degree is indicated with ºC. It is based on the freezing point of water (placed at 0ºC) and the boiling point of water (100ºC).

- Kelvin scale: the Kelvin is indicated with K. it is based on the concept of "absolute zero" temperature, which is the temperature at which matter stops moving, and it is placed at zero Kelvin (0 K), so this scale cannot have negative temperatures, since 0 K is the lowest possible temperature.

The expression to convert from Celsius degrees to Kelvin is:

$T(K)=T(^{\circ}C)+273.15$

Therefore  in this problem, since the student reported a temperature of -3.5 ºK, the errors done are:

1) The Kelvin temperature cannot be negative

2) The Kelvin degree is written as K, not ºK