This of temperature scale conversion formulas appeared in the
November 1965 issue of "Electronics
World" magazine.
You've heard of the Fahrenheit, Centigrade (Celsius), Kelvin, and
Rankine temperature scales, but what about the Réaumur scale? This 1965 Electronics
World magazine article presents all five along with formulas for converting
between them. Each temperature scale is named in honor of its creator.
Daniel Gabriel
Fahrenheit came up with his scale where, under
standard
atmospheric pressure (14.7 lb/in2) pure water freezes at 32°
and boils at 212°. Anders
Celsius decided a more sensible temperature scale would place freezing water
at 0° and boiling water at 100°.
William
Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin set his scale, which has been adopted as the
International
System of Units standard, declares 0° to be absolute zero, where no thermal
energy is present. William
Rankine, of ideal heat engine fame, combined Fahrenheit's scale with Kelvin's
absolute zero concept. Lastly, but not leastly,
René Antoine
Ferchault de Réaumur selected the freezing point of water to be 0° and the boiling
point to be 80°, primarily to accommodate his preference of alcohol over mercury
as a thermometer medium. There you have it - my version of the brief history of
temperature scales.
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