Question about liquid in glass thermometers?

what is the definition of

- range
-sensitivity
-responsiveness
and do they increase/decrease in the following scenarios?
1. Bulb size increase
2. Thickness of bulb wall increase
3. Bore diameter increase
4. Bore length increase
5. Thinner bore wall
6. Change in medium (alcohol to mercury)

Answer
Liquid in glass thermometers are about to disappear from everywhere except school
science courses where they will continue to be used to torture students with
irrelevancies in the name of "it does them good to learn this stuff."
Range - the thermometer will measure from some low temperature to some high
temperature. The range can be physically limited by having length of the tube
limited ( Clinical thermometers used to be quite short and stop at about 45 degrees.
If you had such a temperature you would probably be about to die anyway. If you
put such a thermometer into boiling water, it sort of explodes as the expanding fluid
shatters the glass casing.
So number 4, longer bore, lets you increase the range of the thermometer.
But really its number 6 that determines the range. Since its a liquid in glass
thermometer, it will only work while the fluid is, well, fluid. Once the liquid freezes
all bets are off, and similarly once the liquid boils, you no longer have a
thermometer. Mercury, freezes at about -40 Celsius ( and -40 F, how about that?)
and boils at about 350 Celsius so a mercury thermometer can be used across that
range.
-40 isn't low enough for some parts of the planet, so they used to use alcohol
(Freezing point -120 C) in glass instruments, but couldn't use them to get the right
temperature for their tea as their boiling point is only 80 C.
Sensitivity - how small a change of temperature will the thermometer respond to?
Number 1 - increase the bulb size. This means that for a given temp rise there will
be a bigger amount of liquid to move up the bore - you will be able to detect smaller
temp rises.

But! With more liquid to heat up, such a sensitive thermometer will have a slow
response time.
Responsiveness - how quickly will your thermometer get up to temperature.
Don't increase the bulb size. The larger it is the longer it takes to absorb the
required heat.
Don't increase the bulb wall - that reduces responsiveness. ( What it does is improve
ruggedness.)
Perhaps number 3 - this would make it easy for the liquid to expand up the tube, but
at the same time reduce the sensitivity.
That's enough - I can't think of any reason for making the bore wall thinner, unless
you were dealing with a total immersion thermometer where you wanted the whole
column to be at the same temp.
It gets much more complicated - the liquids used vaporise into the space above
them ( which ideally should be a vacuum) and the loss of liquid can shorten the
column, while the resulting vapour pressure stops the column being as long as it
should be. And liquids do not expand evenly as the temperature changes. And can
you see them inside their glass tubes?
No wonder the world of temperature measurement is going digital.
Other Answers
range = maximum distance that liquid can travel inside the sealed glass.
sensitivity = refers to how far the liquid travels when the temperature is
raised/lowered by one degree.
responsiveness = how long it takes the liquid to travel and stabilize when the
temperature is raised/lowered by one degree.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
of

liquids with a greater responsiveness need a larger bulb.

liquids with great sensitivity may need a thicker bulb wall.
tubes with less range need a larger diameter bore.
tubes with thinner bores must be increased in length.
thinner bore walls are for liquids with less sensitivity or responsiveness.
a change in the medium will change the range, sensitivity and/or responsiveness
a particular thermometer.