You may have found that despite your fingers belonging to the same person, YOU, they experienced vastly different temperatures when placed in water of a single moderate temperature cup. So are humans good thermometers? Not likely, but let's try one more! Mini-experiment #2: 2. This time we will only use the moderate temperature cup and a fan. Put your two index fingers in the cup. After 30 seconds, remove them both, and then quickly place one finger in front of a fan or other source of blowing air, and leave one well away from any source of blowing air. Below write down what you notice about the temperature between the finger in blowing air, and the finger that is not in blowing air. Now that you are sufficiently suspicious if anyone were to tell you what temperature it is outside on any specific day, let's bring it home with a quantifiable experience. Mini-experiment #3: 3. Take your thermometer and place it in the moderate temperature cup. Leave it there until the temperature stabilizes, and then put it in front of the fan. Notice it takes some time for the temperature to get back to the room temperature. Repeat the procedure only now do NOT put the thermometer in front of the fan, but leave it sitting away from any heat or cold source. Write down your findings below. You may have noticed that air flow did not have a significant change in the temperature of the thermometer. A blowing fan may seem to cool us off, but not by directly lowering our temperature. This cooling effect is more a matter of evaporating our sweat, and the evaporation lowers our temperature. A lot like heat index and wind chill! Now that we are thoroughly confused about what temperature really is, let's try to define it in physics terms. One often refers to temperature as a "Thermodynamic Temperature", which is to say an average measure of the kinetic energy of the particles that make up an object. A rather clear picture is sketched out in Georgia State University's web portal entitled "Hyperphysics" http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.qsu.edu/hbase/thermo/temper.html So if several objects, made of a set of specific particles, are touching, but NOT transferring kinetic energy between particles, then they are at the same "temperature". The transfer of kinetic energy can be thought of as part of what makes up the definition of heat in physics