Patent ID: 7238517

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a heating and cooling system, a sample block including at least one well for at least one sample tube containing a known volume of a liquid sample mixture wherein the sample block is capable of thermal contact with the heating and cooling system, means for determining the temperature of said block in a first sample interval, wherein said first sample interval is an interval of time designated as time n; and a computing apparatus to control the heating and cooling system and comprising a program adapted to determine the temperature of a liquid sample mixture as a function of the temperature of said sample block over time by utilizing the relationship: T samp n =T samp n-1 +( TB n −T samp n-1 )* t interval/tau where Tsamp n is equal to the sample temperature in said first sample interval, Tsamp n-1 is a sample temperature in a second sample interval immediately preceding the first sample interval, said second sample interval designated as time n−1, TB n is equal to the block temperature in said first sample interval, tinterval is a time in seconds between consecutive sample intervals, and tau is a function of thermal characteristics of said apparatus.