JimL wrote:

wrote:

Aim the thermometer at a piece of paper...

Why paper? Do you get false readings otherwise?

Maybe. You can't read an air temp with an IR thermometer, because air
is transparent to low-temp IR radiation. If you aim an IR thermometer
at an indoor surface, you will get the temp of the indoor surface, which
may be warmer or cooler than the air temp. One way around that is to
aim it at a piece of paper, ideally after waving the paper in the air
to ensure it's close to the air temp, even if other surfaces exchange
radiant energy with the paper.

Nick