'Fahrenheit' is a
temperature scale named after the German-Dutch
physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736), who proposed it in 1724.
In this scale, the
melting point of
water is 32 degrees Fahrenheit (written “32 °F”), and the
boiling point is 212 degrees, placing the boiling and melting points of water exactly 180 degrees apart. On the
Celsius scale, the melting and boiling points of water are exactly 100 degrees apart, thus the
unit of this scale, a degree Fahrenheit, is of a degree Celsius. The Fahrenheit scale coincides with the Celsius scale at -40 °F, which is the same temperature as -40 °C.
Absolute zero is at −459.67 °F. The
Rankine temperature scale was invented to use degrees the same size as Fahrenheit degrees, and so that at 0 °R would be absolute zero. Thus, 0 °R is the same as −459.67 °F.
History
There are a few competing versions of the story of how Fahrenheit came to devise his temperature scale. One states that Fahrenheit established the zero (0 °F) and 96 °F points on his scale by recording the lowest outdoor temperatures he could measure, and his own
body temperature. He took the lowest temperature which he measured in the harsh winter of 1708 through 1709 in his hometown of
Danzig (now
Gdańsk,
Poland) (−17.8 °C) as his zero point. (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 that the
Rømer scale had produced in everyday use. He fixed his own body temperature as 96 °F. (As noted below, the scale has since been re-calibrated so that
normal body temperature is closer to 98.6 °F). He then divided his scale into twelve sections, and subsequently each of these into 8 equal subdivisions, producing a scale of 96 degrees. Fahrenheit noted that his scale placed the melting point of water at 32 °F and the boiling point at 212 °F, a neat 180 degrees apart.
Another story 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 only contained 12 equal subdivisions, but later he subdivided each division into 8 equal degrees ending up with 96.
A fourth 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 melting point of water and normal human body temperature (which he took to be 96 degrees); the melting point of ice 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).
A fifth version maintains that Fahrenheit based 0 degrees on an estimate of the temperature someone would freeze to death, and 100 degrees on the temperature someone would die of heat exhaustion from, therefore making 0 to 100 the livable range for human beings (this, however, is arguable because human body has been known to survive at temperatures above and below these thresholds.
A sixth version maintains that Fahrenheit marked the melting point of ice, normal human body temperature, and the boiling point of water. He then divided the span from melting to boiling into 180 degrees. Setting the normal human body temperature as 96 resulted in the freezing point and boiling point being 32 and 212, respectively.
A seventh version maintains that the coldest temperature he could achieve in the lab was designated with 0 degrees, and the melting point of butter was 100 degrees.
[1]
His measurements were not entirely accurate; by his original scale, the actual melting 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 melting and boiling points of plain water. That change was made to easily convert from Celsius to Fahrenheit and vice versa, with a simple formula. This change also explains why the body temperature once taken as 96 °F by Fahrenheit is today taken by many as 98.6 °F (it is a direct conversion of 37 °C), although giving the value as 98 °F would be more accurate.
Usage
The Fahrenheit scale was the primary temperature standard for climatic, industrial and medical purposes in most English-speaking countries until the 1960s. In the late 1960s and 1970s, the
Celsius (formerly ''Centigrade'') scale was phased in by governments as part of the standardizing process of
metrication.
Fahrenheit supporters assert its previous popularity was due to Fahrenheit’s user-friendliness. The unit of measure, being only
5⁄
9 the size of the Celsius degree, permits more precise communication of measurements without resorting to fractional degrees. Also, the ambient air temperature in most inhabited regions of the world tends not to go far beyond the range of 0 °F to 100 °F: therefore, the Fahrenheit scale would reflect the perceived ambient temperatures, following 10-degree bands that emerge in the Fahrenheit system. Also, coincidentally, the smallest sensible temperature change averages one Fahrenheit degree; that is, the average person can just detect a temperature difference of a single degree.
But some Celsius supporters argue that their system can be just as natural; for example, they might say that 0–10 °C indicates cold, 10–20 °C mild, 20–30 °C warm and 30–40 °C hot.
In the
United States and perhaps a few other countries (for example,
Belize [2]) the Fahrenheit system continues to be the accepted standard for non-scientific use. Most other countries have adopted Celsius as the primary scale in use. Fahrenheit is sometimes used by older generations in English speaking countries, especially for measurement of higher temperatures.
The special Unicode °F character
The Fahrenheit symbol has an own
Unicode character: U+2109 (decimal value 8457). The character entity
'℉' or
'℉' can be used on
Web page, yielding ℉ rather than °F as two separate characters.
See also
★
Comparison of temperature scales
References
1. What is the History of the Fahrenheit Scale? O. Wallace
2. http://www.hydromet.gov.bz/
External links
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