Talk:Temperature coefficient

Please expand the section on thermometers, include some explanation of linear or volume expansion. Another couple of paragraphs should be plenty.--Homunq 15:47, 19 August 2006 (UTC) Leave the information as it is indexed now. This makes it easier to find when looking for "PTC Thermal Cutout" etc152.72.151.71 (talk) 21:46, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia has a list of temperature coefficients, see: Electrical resistivities of the elements (data page); and Electrical resistivity and conductivity. Charlieb000 (talk) 11:36, 2 September 2016 (UTC)

re: Mergeto temperature coefficient
I think there needs to be a distinction between PTC Devices (a class of electronics devices) and the PTC Effect (physics). In electronics, PTC resistors (sometimes also known as Posistors) are most often used for self-resetting, over-current protection where they can be used to replace disposable fuses. They can also be used as in constant current circuits and self-heated thermostats (or should that be self-thermostatically controlled heaters?). I think it is important not to loose the distinction of how PTC is used in the electronics field. When referring to one of these components it is common to refer to it simply as a PTC, so I think PTC is likely to appear as a search term. It would be confusing if a search for PTC resulted in a physics article on temperature coefficient. --Noah (talk) 18:22, 18 March 2009 (UTC)


 * That's why the dab page PTC exists, so that when someone searches for PTC they can either select the device or the coefficient. Wizard191 (talk) 21:12, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Merge completed
I have merged three related articles into this one. Please consider expanding and referencing this article, rather than undoing the merge, should you feel that the merge introduced incorrect or unreferenced material. Thanks. Protonk (talk) 19:55, 11 September 2009 (UTC)
 * It might have been better to leave the electrical resistance and magnetic effects in separate articles (despite the similarity of their names). Better IMO to have just the maths here with links to separate articles for different physical parameters. - Rod57 (talk)

NTC vs. PTC
The article currently states: "Materials with a negative temperature coefficient have been used in floor heating since 1971. The negative temperature coefficient avoids excessive local heating beneath carpets, bean bag chairs, mattresses etc., which can damage wooden floors, and may infrequently cause fires." I think the author meant positive temp coefficient resistive heaters? A negative temperature coefficient resistive heater would have a lower resistance with increasing temperature. If connected to a constant voltage source, this would exhibit thermal runaway. For example, driving the heater increases it's temperature, which lowers the resistance, which allows more current to flow, which causes the heater to dissipate more power since Power=Current*Voltage. Perhaps the author meant that these heaters exhibit a positive temperature coefficient with respect to their conductance (not resistance?)? If so, the article should likely be corrected as it is non-standard to refer to a heaters conductance temperature coefficient. Typically, the tempco of the resistance is listed in the datasheet. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.156.192.18 (talk) 16:56, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

you are mean not to add some links to ntc dissambiguation$:( — Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.25.49.46 (talk) 00:22, 24 April 2012 (UTC)

Electrical resistance depends on resistivity and thermal expansion
It would be nice to mention/describe if/how electrical resistance (of say a conductor or resistor) depends on resistivity and thermal expansion. - Rod57 (talk) 21:48, 9 November 2016 (UTC)

Temperature coefficient is a function of applied voltage
According to this source, resistance TC is a function of voltage -- a relationship that is claimed to be an important consideration in some circuit designs. If that's correct, it seems worthy of at least a brief mention in the article. Lambtron  talk  20:28, 12 February 2024 (UTC)