Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Fahrenheit proposed his temperature scale in 1724, basing it on two reference points of temperature. In his initial scale (which is not the final Fahrenheit scale), the zero point was determined by placing the thermometer in "a mixture of ice, water, and salis Armoniaci [note 1] [transl. ammonium chloride] or even sea salt". [11]
* Normal human body temperature is 36.8 °C ±0.7 °C, or 98.2 °F ±1.3 °F. The commonly given value 98.6 °F is simply the exact conversion of the nineteenth-century German standard of 37 °C. Since it does not list an acceptable range, it could therefore be said to have excess (invalid) precision.
This definition also precisely related the Celsius scale to the Kelvin scale, which defines the SI base unit of thermodynamic temperature with symbol K. Absolute zero, the lowest temperature possible, is defined as being exactly 0 K and −273.15 °C. Until 19 May 2019, the temperature of the triple point of water was defined as exactly 273.16 ...
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]
[1]: 19 The development of today's thermometers and temperature scales began in the early 18th century, when Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit produced a mercury thermometer and scale, both developed by Ole Christensen Rømer. Fahrenheit's scale is still in use, alongside the Celsius and Kelvin scales.
Internationally agreed temperature scales are designed to approximate this closely, based on fixed points and interpolating thermometers. The most recent official temperature scale is the International Temperature Scale of 1990. It extends from 0.65 K (−272.5 °C; −458.5 °F) to approximately 1,358 K (1,085 °C; 1,985 °F).
Get AOL Mail for FREE! Manage your email like never before with travel, photo & document views. Personalize your inbox with themes & tabs. You've Got Mail!
Common scales of temperature measured in degrees: Celsius (°C) Fahrenheit (°F) Rankine (°R or °Ra), which uses the Fahrenheit scale, adjusted so that 0 degrees Rankine is equal to absolute zero. Unlike the degree Fahrenheit and degree Celsius, the kelvin is no longer referred to or written as a degree (but was before 1967 [1] [2] [3]). The ...