scott wrote:

> Things that look shiny are often shiny to IR too (eg your gloss black 
> oven top, car paintwork, etc) - so you're going to be measuring the 
> temperature of whatever is being reflected more than the actual thing.

In the case of the car, that's going to be the sky (surely not that warm 
on a cloudy day?) or the wall (presumably at equillibrium with the 
surroundings). And yet, I got a fairly warm reading.

In the case of the cooker, that ought to be the gas flames. [Now there's 
a question - can an IR thermometer measure the temperature of a flame? 
Or will it measure the next solid object behind it?] Or, alternatively, 
the underside of the flying pan. Either way, the temperature I measured 
seemed pretty low.

If you wanted to be technical, presumably the IR arriving at the sensor 
is the SUM of reflected and emitted? (What the computer calculates the 
temperature at is another matter of course...)

-- 
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