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Grade 12th passThermal Physics

a piece of ice and a warmer thermometer are suspended in an insulated evacuated enclosure so that they are not in contact, why does thermometer reading decreases for a time?

Profile image of Ch Muhammad abid
10 Years agoGrade 12th pass
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1 Answer

Profile image of Vikas TU
10 Years ago
Although the thermometer and the ice cube are not in intimate thermal contact,  due to the vacuum and isolation, there is an additional heat exchange due to black body radiation.  See: .  The thermometer, initially at a higher temperature than the ice, will radiate at a faster rate than the ice.   Eventually they have to come to the same equilibrium temperature.