cage match: celcius vs fahrenheit
Fahrenheit
...is a temperature scale named after the German physicist Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686-1736), who proposed it in 1724.
In this scale, the freezing point of water is 32 degrees (this is written "32 °F"), and the boiling point is 212 degrees Fahrenheit, placing the boiling and melting points of water 180 degrees apart. Thus the unit of this scale, a degree Fahrenheit, is 5/9ths of a kelvin (which is a degree Celsius), and minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit is equal to minus 40 degrees Celsius.
History
There are several competing versions of the story of how Fahrenheit came to devise his temperature scale. One states that Fahrenheit established the zero (0 °F) and 100 °F points on his scale by recording the lowest outdoor temperatures he could measure, and his own body temperature. He took as his zero point the lowest temperature he measured in the harsh winter of 1708 thru 1709 in his home town of Danzig (-17.8 °C). (He was later able to reach this temperature under laboratory conditions using a mixture of ice, ammonium chloride and water.) Fahrenheit wanted to avoid the negative temperatures which Ole Rømer's scale had produced in every day use. Fahrenheit fixed his own body temperature as 100 °F (normal body temperature is 98 °F, suggesting that Fahrenheit was suffering a fever when he conducted his experiments or that his thermometer was not very accurate), and divided his original scale into twelve divisions; later dividing each of these into 8 equal subdivisions produced a scale of 96 degrees. Fahrenheit noted that his scale placed the freezing point of water at 32 °F and the boiling point at 212 °F, a neat 180 degrees apart.
Another holds that Fahrenheit established the zero of his scale (0 °F) as the temperature at which an equal mixture of ice and salt melts (some say he took that fixed mixture of ice and salt that produced the lowest temperature); and ninety-six degrees as the temperature of blood (he initially used horse blood to calibrate his scale). Initially, his scale had only contained 12 equal subdivisions, but then later he subdivided each division into 8 equal degrees ending up with 96. He then observed that plain water would freeze at 32 degrees and boil at 212 degrees.
A third well-known version of the story, as described in the popular physics television series The Mechanical Universe, holds that Fahrenheit simply adopted Rømer's scale, at which water freezes at 7.5 degrees, and multiplied each value by 4 in order to eliminate the fractions and increase the granularity of the scale (giving 30 and 240 degrees). He then re-calibrated his scale between the freezing point of water and normal human body temperature (which he took to be 96 degrees); the freezing point of water was adjusted to 32 degrees so that 64 intervals would separate the two, allowing him to mark degree lines on his instruments by simply bisecting the interval six times (since 64 is 2 to the sixth power).
His measurements were not entirely accurate, though; by his original scale, the actual freezing and boiling points would have been noticeably different from 32 °F and 212 °F. Some time after his death, it was decided to recalibrate the scale with 32 °F and 212 °F as the exact freezing and boiling points of plain water. This resulted in the healthy human body temperature being 98.6 °F rather than 96 °F. That change was made to easily convert from Celsius to Fahrenheit and vice versa, with a simple formula. This change could also explain why the body temperature once taken as 100 °F by Fahrenheit is today taken by many as 98.6 °F-because that is a nice, round 37 °C-but more accurately yet in the neighborhood of 98.2 °F.
A fourth, not so well-known version of the origin of the Fahrenheit scale depends on Fahrenheit himself being a Freemason (of which there is no definitive evidence). In Freemasonry, there are 32 degrees of enlightenment, 32 being the highest. The use of the 'degree' as well is said to have been derived from the degrees of masonry. This may well be coincidence, but there is no conclusive evidence to the contrary, so the thought persists.
In addition, a more humorous but very possible rumor regarding just how Fahrenheit chose his higher temperature involves a not-so-scientific approach to measuring the temperature of a human body. Supposedly, having no human volunteers from which to take his measurement, and not wanting to test it on himself (possibly for lack of an average between several bodies), he decided that the anal temperature of a common pig would closely match the internal body temperature of a human. He proceeded to mark the temperatures of several swine on a mercury tube, found the average, and claimed it to be correct. While the idea of a fairly esteemed scientist taking such a chance with measurement is questionable, given the fact that the body temperature of a pig is very close to that of a human, the logic behind this hasty decision would at least be fairly well placed. It is possible that, in a rush to meet a deadline determined by a boast or otherwise, it was his only option. This is, of course, only a rumor, though it could also account for the slight inaccuracy of Fahrenheit's 100 degree mark being the supposed internal body temperature of a human.
celsius
The degree Celsius (symbol: °C) is an SI unit of temperature. The freezing point of water is designated at 0 °C and the boiling point at 100 °C.
A change in temperature of 1 °C is equal to a change in temperature of 1 K.
Absolute zero is -273.15 °C
For temperature readings,
t°C = tK - 273.15
history
It is named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius (1701 to 1744), who first proposed a similar system in 1742.
The temperature scale invented by Anders Celsius was originally designed so that the freezing point of water is 100 degrees, and its boiling point is 0 degrees at standard atmospheric pressure. This was reversed to its modern order some time after his death, in part at the instigation of Daniel Ekström, the manufacturer of most of the thermometers used by Celsius. Several other people, including Elvius from Sweden (1710) and Christian of Lyons (1743), independently invented the same temperature scale. The oft-quoted claim that the botanist Carolus Linnaeus (1740) is amongst those is unsubstantiated. The Delisle scale was another temperature scale that ran "downward".
In 1948 there were three names for the same unit:
* centigrade
* centesimal degree
* degree Celsius
From that date, the official name was chosen to be degree Celsius.
Since there are 100 graduations between these two reference points, the original term for this system was centigrade (100 parts) or centesimal. In 1948 the system's name was officially changed to Celsius (a third name which had also been in use before then) by the 9th General Conference on Weights and Measures (CR 64), both in recognition of Celsius himself and to eliminate confusion caused by conflict with the use of the SI centi- prefix. While the values for freezing and boiling of water remain approximately correct, the original definition is unsuitable as a formal standard: it depends on the definition of standard atmospheric pressure which in turn depends on the definition of temperature. The current official definition of the Celsius sets 0.01 ℃ to be at the triple point of water and a degree to be 1/273.16 of the difference in temperature between the triple point of water and absolute zero. This definition was adopted in 1954 at the 10th General Conference on Weights and Measures. The definition given for the kelvin is similar, the difference being that 0 K is absolute zero.
The degree Celsius is the only SI unit whose full unit name ("degree Celsius", not "Celsius") in English includes an upper case letter. That is a quirk of English, because it is a proper adjective rather than a noun (before the name was changed from "degree Kelvin" to "kelvin" in 1967, that was another SI unit containing a capital letter in English). SI prefixes are applied normally, so you can have, for example, a measurement of « 12 m℃ ».
The Celsius scale is used throughout most of the world for day-to-day purposes. In broadcast media it was still frequently referred to as centigrade until the late 1980s or early 1990s, particularly by weather forecasters on European networks such as the BBC, ITV, and RTÉ. In the United States and Jamaica, Fahrenheit remains the dominant scale for everyday temperature measurement, although degree Celsius and kelvin are used for aeronautical and scientific applications.
In the United Kingdom, Celsius is the official scale used by the government and the media. It is also the only scale used in British cooking and temperature controllers (for example, room thermostats). Some of the British media, provide Fahrenheit equivalents for temperatures well above room temperature. Temperatures below room temperature are almost exclusively quoted in degrees Celsius in the UK.
PROS for celsius
-sensible derivation based on boiling and freezing of water.
-named after a swedish astronomer and as we all know, swedish astronomers are the best.
-most of the world uses celsius
CONS for celsius
-origin derivation is actually unsuitable because it depends on the definition of standard atmospheric pressure which in turn depends on definition of temperature.
-possibly unfairly named after celsius since other people had invented it independently before him.
-very small scale means when someone asks you exactly how cold it is out, you have to resort to decimals to be accurate
-history and derivation very cold and scientific
PROS for fahrenheit
-derivation in multiple origin stories is based on the human body, which, for the purposes of every day weather temperature measurement, makes sense.
-bonus origin story makes it possible that the entire system is based on the temperature of a pig's anus
-very wide accommodating scale means people can split hairs about whether 55 is jacket-wearing weather or whether only really need to start wearing a jacket at 50.
-U S A! U S A! U S A!
CONS for fahrenheit
-??????
VERDICT:
fahrenheit wins!
...is a temperature scale named after the German physicist Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686-1736), who proposed it in 1724.
In this scale, the freezing point of water is 32 degrees (this is written "32 °F"), and the boiling point is 212 degrees Fahrenheit, placing the boiling and melting points of water 180 degrees apart. Thus the unit of this scale, a degree Fahrenheit, is 5/9ths of a kelvin (which is a degree Celsius), and minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit is equal to minus 40 degrees Celsius.
History
There are several competing versions of the story of how Fahrenheit came to devise his temperature scale. One states that Fahrenheit established the zero (0 °F) and 100 °F points on his scale by recording the lowest outdoor temperatures he could measure, and his own body temperature. He took as his zero point the lowest temperature he measured in the harsh winter of 1708 thru 1709 in his home town of Danzig (-17.8 °C). (He was later able to reach this temperature under laboratory conditions using a mixture of ice, ammonium chloride and water.) Fahrenheit wanted to avoid the negative temperatures which Ole Rømer's scale had produced in every day use. Fahrenheit fixed his own body temperature as 100 °F (normal body temperature is 98 °F, suggesting that Fahrenheit was suffering a fever when he conducted his experiments or that his thermometer was not very accurate), and divided his original scale into twelve divisions; later dividing each of these into 8 equal subdivisions produced a scale of 96 degrees. Fahrenheit noted that his scale placed the freezing point of water at 32 °F and the boiling point at 212 °F, a neat 180 degrees apart.
Another holds that Fahrenheit established the zero of his scale (0 °F) as the temperature at which an equal mixture of ice and salt melts (some say he took that fixed mixture of ice and salt that produced the lowest temperature); and ninety-six degrees as the temperature of blood (he initially used horse blood to calibrate his scale). Initially, his scale had only contained 12 equal subdivisions, but then later he subdivided each division into 8 equal degrees ending up with 96. He then observed that plain water would freeze at 32 degrees and boil at 212 degrees.
A third well-known version of the story, as described in the popular physics television series The Mechanical Universe, holds that Fahrenheit simply adopted Rømer's scale, at which water freezes at 7.5 degrees, and multiplied each value by 4 in order to eliminate the fractions and increase the granularity of the scale (giving 30 and 240 degrees). He then re-calibrated his scale between the freezing point of water and normal human body temperature (which he took to be 96 degrees); the freezing point of water was adjusted to 32 degrees so that 64 intervals would separate the two, allowing him to mark degree lines on his instruments by simply bisecting the interval six times (since 64 is 2 to the sixth power).
His measurements were not entirely accurate, though; by his original scale, the actual freezing and boiling points would have been noticeably different from 32 °F and 212 °F. Some time after his death, it was decided to recalibrate the scale with 32 °F and 212 °F as the exact freezing and boiling points of plain water. This resulted in the healthy human body temperature being 98.6 °F rather than 96 °F. That change was made to easily convert from Celsius to Fahrenheit and vice versa, with a simple formula. This change could also explain why the body temperature once taken as 100 °F by Fahrenheit is today taken by many as 98.6 °F-because that is a nice, round 37 °C-but more accurately yet in the neighborhood of 98.2 °F.
A fourth, not so well-known version of the origin of the Fahrenheit scale depends on Fahrenheit himself being a Freemason (of which there is no definitive evidence). In Freemasonry, there are 32 degrees of enlightenment, 32 being the highest. The use of the 'degree' as well is said to have been derived from the degrees of masonry. This may well be coincidence, but there is no conclusive evidence to the contrary, so the thought persists.
In addition, a more humorous but very possible rumor regarding just how Fahrenheit chose his higher temperature involves a not-so-scientific approach to measuring the temperature of a human body. Supposedly, having no human volunteers from which to take his measurement, and not wanting to test it on himself (possibly for lack of an average between several bodies), he decided that the anal temperature of a common pig would closely match the internal body temperature of a human. He proceeded to mark the temperatures of several swine on a mercury tube, found the average, and claimed it to be correct. While the idea of a fairly esteemed scientist taking such a chance with measurement is questionable, given the fact that the body temperature of a pig is very close to that of a human, the logic behind this hasty decision would at least be fairly well placed. It is possible that, in a rush to meet a deadline determined by a boast or otherwise, it was his only option. This is, of course, only a rumor, though it could also account for the slight inaccuracy of Fahrenheit's 100 degree mark being the supposed internal body temperature of a human.
celsius
The degree Celsius (symbol: °C) is an SI unit of temperature. The freezing point of water is designated at 0 °C and the boiling point at 100 °C.
A change in temperature of 1 °C is equal to a change in temperature of 1 K.
Absolute zero is -273.15 °C
For temperature readings,
t°C = tK - 273.15
history
It is named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius (1701 to 1744), who first proposed a similar system in 1742.
The temperature scale invented by Anders Celsius was originally designed so that the freezing point of water is 100 degrees, and its boiling point is 0 degrees at standard atmospheric pressure. This was reversed to its modern order some time after his death, in part at the instigation of Daniel Ekström, the manufacturer of most of the thermometers used by Celsius. Several other people, including Elvius from Sweden (1710) and Christian of Lyons (1743), independently invented the same temperature scale. The oft-quoted claim that the botanist Carolus Linnaeus (1740) is amongst those is unsubstantiated. The Delisle scale was another temperature scale that ran "downward".
In 1948 there were three names for the same unit:
* centigrade
* centesimal degree
* degree Celsius
From that date, the official name was chosen to be degree Celsius.
Since there are 100 graduations between these two reference points, the original term for this system was centigrade (100 parts) or centesimal. In 1948 the system's name was officially changed to Celsius (a third name which had also been in use before then) by the 9th General Conference on Weights and Measures (CR 64), both in recognition of Celsius himself and to eliminate confusion caused by conflict with the use of the SI centi- prefix. While the values for freezing and boiling of water remain approximately correct, the original definition is unsuitable as a formal standard: it depends on the definition of standard atmospheric pressure which in turn depends on the definition of temperature. The current official definition of the Celsius sets 0.01 ℃ to be at the triple point of water and a degree to be 1/273.16 of the difference in temperature between the triple point of water and absolute zero. This definition was adopted in 1954 at the 10th General Conference on Weights and Measures. The definition given for the kelvin is similar, the difference being that 0 K is absolute zero.
The degree Celsius is the only SI unit whose full unit name ("degree Celsius", not "Celsius") in English includes an upper case letter. That is a quirk of English, because it is a proper adjective rather than a noun (before the name was changed from "degree Kelvin" to "kelvin" in 1967, that was another SI unit containing a capital letter in English). SI prefixes are applied normally, so you can have, for example, a measurement of « 12 m℃ ».
The Celsius scale is used throughout most of the world for day-to-day purposes. In broadcast media it was still frequently referred to as centigrade until the late 1980s or early 1990s, particularly by weather forecasters on European networks such as the BBC, ITV, and RTÉ. In the United States and Jamaica, Fahrenheit remains the dominant scale for everyday temperature measurement, although degree Celsius and kelvin are used for aeronautical and scientific applications.
In the United Kingdom, Celsius is the official scale used by the government and the media. It is also the only scale used in British cooking and temperature controllers (for example, room thermostats). Some of the British media, provide Fahrenheit equivalents for temperatures well above room temperature. Temperatures below room temperature are almost exclusively quoted in degrees Celsius in the UK.
PROS for celsius
-sensible derivation based on boiling and freezing of water.
-named after a swedish astronomer and as we all know, swedish astronomers are the best.
-most of the world uses celsius
CONS for celsius
-origin derivation is actually unsuitable because it depends on the definition of standard atmospheric pressure which in turn depends on definition of temperature.
-possibly unfairly named after celsius since other people had invented it independently before him.
-very small scale means when someone asks you exactly how cold it is out, you have to resort to decimals to be accurate
-history and derivation very cold and scientific
PROS for fahrenheit
-derivation in multiple origin stories is based on the human body, which, for the purposes of every day weather temperature measurement, makes sense.
-bonus origin story makes it possible that the entire system is based on the temperature of a pig's anus
-very wide accommodating scale means people can split hairs about whether 55 is jacket-wearing weather or whether only really need to start wearing a jacket at 50.
-U S A! U S A! U S A!
CONS for fahrenheit
-??????
VERDICT:
fahrenheit wins!