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Re: Temperature Scales



Thanks for the additional information, Brian

It seems as if many students are led to believe
that Fahrenheit somehow came up with the
numbers 32 and 212 arbitrarily

On Fri, 17 Nov 2000 17:30:28 +1100 Brian McInnes <bmcinnes@PNC.COM.AU>
writes:
Herb Gottlieb wrote


Does anyone on this list have an historical reference
that give greater details concerning the origin of the
Fahrenheit thermometer scale?


In his book "A Survey of Thermodynamics" Martin Bailyn writes: " In
1701, Newton proposed that the freezing point of water be taken as 0
degrees, and the temperature of human blood as 12 degrees.
Fahrenheit, around, 1714, at first used the melting point of ice and
the temperature of the human body but assigned them bizarre
numbers."

The reference Bailyn gives for the bizarre numbers is Chapter 4 of W
E
Knowles Middleton's "The History of the Thermometer" (John Hopkins
Press, Baltimore. 1966)

Brian McInnes