Why is the glass around the bulb in a clinical thermometer relatively thin?
The glass around the bulb in a clinical thermometer (the conventional one) is thin because glass is not a good conductor of heat. The clinician and the patient don’t want to wait half an hour to get a good temperature reading. By using the thinner glass, the transfer of heat into the thermometer’s fluid will be more rapid than it would with an instrument with thicker glass.
