Temperature Is Not What You Think It Is

Published: Sept. 29, 2017, 8:12 a.m.

What is temperature? This question comes up quite a bit\u2014especially in introductory science courses. The most common answer is something like this: Temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of the particles in an object. When temperature increases, the motion of these particles also increases. It's not a terrible definition, but it's not the best either. There are plenty of other crazy things about temperature that you should probably know.