Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The degree Celsius (°C) can refer to a specific temperature on the Celsius scale as well as a unit to indicate a temperature interval (a difference between two temperatures). From 1744 until 1954, 0 °C was defined as the freezing point of water and 100 °C was defined as the boiling point of water, both at a pressure of one standard atmosphere .
This Wikipedia page provides a comprehensive list of boiling and freezing points for various solvents.
Water boiling at 99.3 °C (210.8 °F) at 215 m (705 ft) elevation. The boiling point of a substance is the temperature at which the vapor pressure of a liquid equals the pressure surrounding the liquid [1] [2] and the liquid changes into a vapor. The boiling point of a liquid varies depending upon the surrounding environmental pressure.
Therefore, a degree on the Fahrenheit scale was 1 ⁄ 180 of the interval between the freezing point and the boiling point. On the Celsius scale, the freezing and boiling points of water were originally defined to be 100 degrees apart. A temperature interval of 1 °F was equal to an interval of 5 ⁄ 9 degrees Celsius.
Anders Celsius's original thermometer used a reversed scale, with 100 as the freezing point and 0 as the boiling point of water.. In 1742, Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius (1701–1744) created a temperature scale that was the reverse of the scale now known as "Celsius": 0 represented the boiling point of water, while 100 represented the freezing point of water. [5]
It is an empirical scale that developed historically, which led to its zero point 0 °C being defined as the freezing point of water, and 100 °C as the boiling point of water, both at atmospheric pressure at sea level. It was called a centigrade scale because of the 100-degree interval. [3]
Regular, hexagonal ice is also less dense than liquid water—upon freezing, the density of water decreases by about 9%. [36] [e] These peculiar effects are due to the highly directional bonding of water molecules via the hydrogen bonds: ice and liquid water at low temperature have comparatively low-density, low-energy open lattice structures.
Freezing is a phase transition in which a liquid turns into a solid when its temperature is lowered below its freezing point. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] For most substances, the melting and freezing points are the same temperature; however, certain substances possess differing solid-liquid transition temperatures.