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As commonly used for commercial applications of RTD thermometers, the relationship between resistance and temperature is given by the following equations. The relationship above 0 °C (up to the melting point of aluminum ~ 660 °C) is a simplification of the equation that holds over a broader range down to -200 °C.
Copper has a very linear resistance–temperature relationship; however, copper oxidizes at moderate temperatures and cannot be used over 150 °C (302 °F). [citation needed] The significant characteristic of metals used as resistive elements is the linear approximation of the resistance versus temperature relationship between 0 and 100 °C.
The SI unit of absolute thermal resistance is kelvins per watt (K/W) or the equivalent degrees Celsius per watt (°C/W) – the two are the same since the intervals are equal: ΔT = 1 K = 1 °C. The thermal resistance of materials is of great interest to electronic engineers because most electrical components generate heat and need to be cooled.
The defining equation for thermal conductivity is =, where is the heat flux, is the thermal conductivity, and is the temperature gradient. This is known as Fourier's law for heat conduction. Although commonly expressed as a scalar , the most general form of thermal conductivity is a second-rank tensor .
This equation, along with the continuity equation for J and the Poisson's equation for E, form a set of partial differential equations. In special cases, an exact or approximate solution to these equations can be worked out by hand, but for very accurate answers in complex cases, computer methods like finite element analysis may be required.
The Steinhart–Hart equation is a model relating the varying electrical resistance of a semiconductor to its varying temperatures. The equation is = + + (), where is the temperature (in kelvins), is the resistance at (in ohms),
For a property R that changes when the temperature changes by dT, the temperature coefficient α is defined by the following equation: d R R = α d T {\displaystyle {\frac {dR}{R}}=\alpha \,dT} Here α has the dimension of an inverse temperature and can be expressed e.g. in 1/K or K −1 .
Over small changes in temperature, if the right semiconductor is used, the resistance of the material is linearly proportional to the temperature. There are many different semiconducting thermistors with a range from about 0.01 kelvin to 2,000 kelvins (−273.14 °C to 1,700 °C).