TEMPERATURE In a qualitative manner, we can describe the temperature of an object as that which determines the sensation of warmth or coldness felt from contact with it. It is easy to demonstrate that when two objects of the same material are placed together (physicists say when they are put in thermal contact), the object with the higher temperature cools while the cooler object becomes warmer until a point is reached after which no more change occurs, and to our senses, they feel the same. When the thermal changes have stopped, we say that the two objects (physicists define them more rigorously as systems) are in thermal equilibrium . We can then define the temperature of the system by saying that the temperature is that quantity which is the same for both systems when they are in thermal equilibrium.