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Wind chill factor

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If you put an ordinary thermometer in a windflow - like in the airvent inside an aircraft - will it give a true reading or is it affected by a 'windchill' factor?



Someone get a thermometer, hold it up in front of a fan, and see if the mercury drops.

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>You need a special wet thermometer to read "wind chill factor."

That's relative humidity, not wind chill.

Wind chill is an effect where rapidly moving air transfers more heat from a warmer body than still air does. If the air is 98.6 degrees, there is no "wind chill" at all, because it can't transfer heat away through conduction. However, the wind can still cool people at those temperatures, because people sweat - and evaporation _does_ cool you when the wind is moving faster.

To test for wind chill you use a heated thermometer and see how much the temperature drops under varying conditions. (That's also a way to measure airspeed BTW.)

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If you put an ordinary thermometer in a windflow - like in the airvent inside an aircraft - will it give a true reading or is it affected by a 'windchill' factor?



Actually, all other things being equal, with a high enough windspeed, the thermometer will actually read higher, not lower. Friction of the air passing over it will raise the temperature of the thermometer.
" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

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