Answers:
The thermometer will just give a reading of the ambient temperature so yes if you left it lying around it will give you a reading of room temperature, if you put it in a pan of boiling water it would give you that temperature and if you put it in the refridgerator it will give you the temperature in there.
I assume you are talking about one of the old style glass/plastic thermometers with a coloured liquid inside that rises and falls to the relevent temperature. This works due to the level of excitation experienced by the molecules that make up the liquid. When you add heat to any form of matter you are adding energy, this energy excites the molecules causing them to vibrate and move around much faster and thus also meaning that the substance as a whole takes up more space. When you cool matter down the molecules have less energy and therefore do not move as much and so take up less space.
When this process occurs inside a thermometer, the liquid (traditionally mercury) rises and falls due how exctied the molecules in the liquid are by the energy supplied through heat by the surrounding matter.
In other words a thermometer is always 'on' and taking the temperature of the matter surrounding it (air counts as matter) and therefore you, not your wife, is correct.
i think it would still work, it just wouldn't be accurate b/c it's not meant to be used that way?
shes right
The mouth isn't the only place that you can get a reading from an oral thermometer. In my kid days I used to hold it close to a (turned on) light bulb, a lit match, warm water or a furnice...but just the air with out any real heat source, it wouldn't get a rise.
I think she is right.
why don't you leave it lying out and see.
i don't know why it wouldn't work, the thermometer doesn't know where it is. it would take longer to reach equilibrium, but the properties of alcohol or mercury con't vary whether it's in your mouth or the air.
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