Question

Mention two advantages and two disadvantages of using mercury as a thermometric liquid.

Answer 1

Thermometric liquid

A thermometric liquid is a liquid that can change its volume (increase or decrease) in accordance with surrounding temperature.

Advantages of using mercury as thermometric liquid:

1. Its melting point is $-39°C$and the boiling point is$357°C$, so it can be used over a large range of thermometers.
2. Being opaque and shiny liquid, it can be seen easily through glass.

Disadvantages of using mercury as thermometric liquid are:

1. It does not have uniform expansion.
2. Its coefficient of volume expansion is very low.