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This is a collection of temperature conversion formulas and comparisons among eight different temperature scales, several of which have long been obsolete.. Temperatures on scales that either do not share a numeric zero or are nonlinearly related cannot correctly be mathematically equated (related using the symbol =), and thus temperatures on different scales are more correctly described as ...
[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.
The specific way of assigning numerical values for temperature is establishing a scale of temperature. [1] [2] [3] In practical terms, a temperature scale is always based on usually a single physical property of a simple thermodynamic system, called a thermometer, that defines a scaling function for mapping the temperature to the measurable ...
In the United States, the Fahrenheit scale is the most widely used. On this scale the freezing point of water corresponds to 32 °F and the boiling point to 212 °F. The Rankine scale, still used in fields of chemical engineering in the US, is an absolute scale based on the Fahrenheit increment.
With the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales now both defined by the kelvin, this relationship was preserved, a temperature interval of 1 °F being equal to an interval of 5 ⁄ 9 K and of 5 ⁄ 9 °C. The Fahrenheit and Celsius scales intersect numerically at −40 in the respective unit (i.e., −40 °F ≘ −40 °C).
An example for which it cannot be used is the conversion between the Celsius scale and the Kelvin scale (or the Fahrenheit scale). Between degrees Celsius and kelvins, there is a constant difference rather than a constant ratio, while between degrees Celsius and degrees Fahrenheit there is neither a constant difference nor a constant ratio.
Although "International Temperature Scale of 1990" has the word "scale" in its title, this is a misnomer that can be misleading. The ITS-90 is not a scale; it is an equipment calibration standard. Temperatures measured with equipment calibrated per ITS-90 may be expressed using any temperature scale such as Celsius, Kelvin, Fahrenheit, or Rankine.
A maximum–minimum thermometer. The scales are Fahrenheit on the inside of the U and Celsius on the outside. The current temperature is 23 degrees Celsius, the maximum recorded is 25, and the minimum is 15; both read from the base of the small markers in each arm of the U tube. The bulbs are hidden by a plastic housing.