Re: Temperature Scales

[John Denker <jsd@MONMOUTH.COM>]

At 02:38 PM 11/16/00 -0500, Tony Wayne wrote:
> The Celcius temperature scale is based on the freezing and boiling points of
> water. The temperature range was divided up into 100 degrees. Does anyone
> know how the Fahrenheit scale was determined?

You can answer this question for yourself.  It takes only a minute or
two  using
  www.google.com/

The answer can be found at e.g.
  http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/staff/blynds/tmp.html

Fahrenheit described how he calibrated the scale of his mercury
thermometer:

     "placing the thermometer in a mixture of sal
     ammoniac or sea salt, ice, and water a point on the
     scale will be found which is denoted as zero. A
     second point is obtained if the same mixture is used
     without salt. Denote this position as 30. A third point,
     designated as 96, is obtained if the thermometer is
     placed in the mouth so as to acquire the heat of a
     healthy man." (D. G. Fahrenheit,Phil. Trans.
     (London) 33, 78, 1724)

On this scale, Fahrenheit measured the boiling point of water to be
212. Later he adjusted the freezing point of water to 32 so that the
interval between the boiling and freezing points of water could be
represented by the more rational number 180. Temperatures
measured on this scale are designated as degrees Fahrenheit (°F).