Physics Thermometer (40)

No. Quick response is NOT equal to senstivie.
Take a mercury in glass thermometer for example. The sensitivity is the change (increase/decrease) of length of mercurey thread for a degree change of temperature.
That is, if themometer A gives a 1 cm increase in mercury length when the temperature rises by 1'C, when compared to thermometer B that gives only 0.2 cm increase in mercury length for the same 1'C rise in temperature, then A is more senstivity than B.
Suppose the room temperature only rises by 0.1'C, then thermometer A would give a reading of 0.1 cm, or 1mm, increase in mercury length, but thermometer B would give a reading of 0.02 cm, or 0.2mm, increase in mercury length, the increase is is so small for being not easily observable. Clearly, thermomter A can measure small rise in temperature, say down to 1'C, but not thermometer B.
Therefore, a more sensitive thermometer can meausre small rise in temperature than a less sensitive thermometer does. In that sense, sensitivity is usually expressed in cm/'C, or mm/'C for liquid-in-glss thermometers.
The response time is how quick the increase (or decrease) in mercury length becomes steady when there is a rise (or decrease) of temperature. It is usually measure in time unit of seconds, or milli-seconds.
For example, if the room temperature rises by 1'C, the mercury thread of themometer A increases in length and becomes steady after 2 s, whereas the mercury thread of thermometer B increases in length and becomes steady after 1 s, surely themometer B responses quciker than thermometer A because B has a shorter response time than A.
Sensitivity and response are two independent parameters. They are not related to each other.

2009-09-27 16:15:05 補充：
Sensitivity usually connected with the construction of the thermometer, e.g. by narrowing the glass stem of a liquid-in-glass thermometer.

2009-09-27 16:15:20 補充：
Response usually connected with the choice of thermometry material, e.g. by using mercury (which is a metal and should give response far more better than non-metals when there is a change of temprature) than alcohol in the thermometer.