February 28, 2008
Fahrenheit, Celsius, Centigrade, Kelvin?
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Updated February 28, 2008
Please send me mail.
My head is spinning
In 1724, Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686-1736) Came along and stated the freezing point of water is 32 degrees. The boiling point is 212 degrees.
Anders Celsius came along and stated boiling water should be 0 degrees. He stated also that 100 degrees should be the melting point of ice. You read that correctly, 0 is hotter than 100. The scale was called Centigrade.
Carl Linneaus (1707-1778), the same scientist who started the Linnean System of Classification of species (ie: kingdoms, phyla, classes, orders, genus, and species) came along. He developed the two-word species name system (ie: Homo sapien.) The first word is for the genus name, the second for the species. Linneaus came along and reversed Celsius's numbers. (0 being melting point, 100 being boiling point). Then in 1969, it was decided by the international body overseeing International System of Measures that instead of calling it Centigrade, we should call Celsius's scale, well, you guessed it, Celsius.
Then a guy named William Thomson, aka: Lord Kelvin (1824-1907) comes along and puts in his 2 degrees (umm, 2 cents). He introduces Absolute Zero--the temperature when molecular motion approaches zero temperatures (-273.15 degrees celcius or -459.67 degrees Fahrenheit). Absolute Zero simply does not exist, it would take an infinite amount of energy to reach.
So what have we learned here? What we have learned is, anyone can start a temperature scale. This is the official notice that I am beginning the Delbridge Scale of Temperature. The scale will only pertain to beautiful days. It will range from 65 degrees Fahrenheit and 75 degrees Fahrenheit. It will be on a 10 point scale, 65 degrees will be a 1, 66 a 2, etc. A 10 will be 75 degrees. hmmm, 75 degrees is 10 degrees Delbridge....perfect.
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