http://ask.metafilter.com/tags/emissivity tag posts with emissivity Thu, 04 Jan 2007 10:03:55 -0800 Thu, 04 Jan 2007 10:03:55 -0800 en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 http://ask.metafilter.com/54364/How-accurate-is-this-infrared-thermometer I got a small infrared thermometer as a gift, and I'm trying to understand how well it takes temperatures of different materials. The specs says it has a preset emissivity of 0.95. There's no other adjustments or controls on the unit, other than the trigger.<br> <br> Is it correct to assume that if I point it at materials with that same emissivity, like concrete (from this <a href="http://www.optotherm.com/emiss-table.htm">table</a>), it'll be pretty accurate? So what happens when I try measuring temperatures of materials with emissivity that's vastly different than 0.95? Like gold or silver (both 0.05)? Will the temperature I measure be far off the mark? Can I calculate a corrected value based on the emissivity of the target material? tag:ask.metafilter.com,2008:site.54364 Thu, 04 Jan 2007 10:03:55 -0800 thermometer emissivity jaimev