the.com/pyrometer
The thermometer that gave up touching things and just stares at the heat instead.
means An instrument that measures very high temperatures, often by detecting the radiation (light/heat glow) an object gives off rather than making physical contact with it.
from Built from Greek 'pyro-' (fire) plus '-meter' (measure). The word was coined in the 18th century for devices meant to gauge heats far beyond what a liquid-in-glass thermometer could survive — furnace and kiln temperatures that would simply shatter or boil away a normal thermometer. Over time 'pyrometer' came to especially describe non-contact instruments that read the glow of a hot object, letting it measure fire without ever touching it.
- how it works
- Reads infrared light, not physical contact
- origin
- Greek pyro, fire, plus meter, measure
- range
- Measures up to 3000 degrees celsius easily
- used in
- Steel mills, volcanoes, and jet engines