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In describing an experiment, when researchers specify its temperature no more precisely than as "room temperature," this implies they have assumed that temperature differences of a few degrees do not matter to the phenomenon or question they were investigating. Typically researchers do not closely watch or control the temperature of a "room temperature" experiment.
The phenomena that researchers have chosen to study at room temperature may occur in nature in the range of 21-23 °C (" ATP consumption in resting cockroaches"), or they may not (" biochemistry of warm-blooded animals"). Researchers choose to study a process outside its natural temperature range when they expect that the answer to their specific question ("What is the product of this enzymatic reaction?") will be the same at room temperature as it would have been had they conducted their experiment at a more naturalistic temperature.
Experimentalists have an advantage in anticipating aspects of a room-temperature experiment, because the temperature is close to 25 °C (77 °F, 298K), at which many of the material properties and physical constantIn science, a physical constant is a physical quantity whose numerical value does not change. It can be contrasted with a mathematical constant, which is a fixed value that does not directly involve a physical measurement. There are many physical constants in standards tables have been measured (more at standard stateIn chemistry, the standard state of a material is its state at 1 standard atmosphere (101 325 pascals) and 25 degrees Celsius (298. 15 kelvin). When the standard state is referred to in a chemical reaction, it also includes the condition that all solution). By consulting such tables, a researcher may anticipate, for example, how fast a chemical reactionChemical reactions are also known as chemical changes. This refers to the changes in the structure of molecules. Such reactions can result in molecules attaching to each other to form larger molecules, molecules breaking apart to form two or more smaller is likely to proceed.
Ultimately, a scientist conducts experiments at room temperature because it is convenient. The convenienceA convenience is a luxury that is intended to save a consumer time or frustration. A convenience store, for example, sells items that have nothing to do with gasoline or petrol, but it saves the consumer a stop or separate trip to the grocery store. Other may be only modest, as in cases where researchers might have performed a more realistic experiment simply by sticking some material in an ovenAn oven is an enclosed compartment for heating, baking or drying. It is most commonly used in cooking and pottery. Cooking In cooking, the conventional oven is a common kitchen appliance and is used for baking, broiling, roasting and heating food. Food no or refrigerator. Or it may be more like a necessity, as in cases where maintaining a firm control over the temperature of apparatus and the other elements involved would pose significant conceptA concept is an abstract, universal psychical entity that serves to designate a category or class of entities, events or relations. A concept is the element of a proposition rather in the way that a word is the element of a sentence. Concepts are abstractual, technological or financial challenges.
When researchers have chosen either not to measure or not to control the temperature of an experiment; when they perform their experiment outdoors, or in a room where they perceive that the temperature varies either in time or in the space around an experiment; or when they simply sense that the temperature is beyond the range of 21-23 °C, they are liable to report that they conducted it at ambient temperature. Whether they do so may depend on whether they believe the process or question they are investigating could be sensitive to the size of the deviations from room temperature they expect.
Being a less precise specification than even "room temperature", "ambient temperature" is more certain to be accurate. Because scientists strive for accuracy in their reports, many use this specification exclusively just as a matter of course, even to describe experiments that they could justifiably characterize as having been conducted at room temperature.
Arguably, no precision is lost in this practice: In disciplines where experimenters always work in laboratories, and where temperature differences of a few degrees make little difference with regard to the questions that scientists ask, the distinction between ambient and room temperature literally is not worth making. And, of course, the ambient temperature of a room is room temperature.
Yet small temperature differences have large effects on many natural processes. Therefore scientists who do observe a distinction between the two specifications may be sticklers about which one to apply. For example, heat given off by electronics or motors may warm the area around an experiment relative to the rest of a room. Under such circumstances, and depending on the question under investigation, some scientists would consider it inaccurate to report that an experiment took place at room temperature.
See also: standard state
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