thermometry

Thermometry is the science and practice of temperature measurement. A thermometer is an instrument used for this purpose. The invention of the thermometer is often attributed to Galileo Galilei around 1592. Early thermometers used the expansion and contraction of air or liquids like mercury to indicate temperature changes, with scales developed by figures like Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit and Anders Celsius. Modern thermometers include electronic digital thermometers, thermistors, and infrared thermometers. Temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of particles in a system and indicates the direction of heat flow. The Kelvin (K) scale is the international standard for scientific temperature measurement.