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100 things challenge - 24: Temperature
Aug. 19th, 2012 10:01 pmIt was very hot in The Netherlands this weekend. It got me thinking, when did people actually stop simply saying: it's very hot today and start naming it 'so-and-so many degrees'?
In 1592 Galileo Galilei build the first device showing variation of hotness, called a thermoscope. This used the contraction of air to draw water into a tube to measure 'temperature'. In 1624, the word thermometer is used for the first time by the scientist Leurochon in a French scientific magazine. He describes a scale of 8 degrees of hotness. In 1654 the first 'modern' style thermometer is made by Fernando II de Medici, a sealed tube of glass filled with alcohol.
Ole Christiansen Romer proposed the first well known temperature scale in 1701, the Romer scale. Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, inventor of the still used Fahrenheit scale, corresponded with Romer and took ideas from him. In 1724 Fahrenheit proposed his well-known temperature scale. The zero point is determined by placing the thermometer in a mixture of ice, water and ammonium chloride. 32 degrees Fahrenheit is the freezing point of water and 212 F the boiling point. Thus, there are exactly 180 degrees Fahrenheit between freezing and boiling of water. The Fahrenheit scale was the primary temperature standard used for climatic, industrial and medical purposes in the English speaking world for over 200 years. In the 1960's this role was gradually taken over by the Celsius scale. Fahrenheit is still used in the US, Belize and US territories as Guam and Virgin Islands for everyday applications. The Celcius scale, named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celcius, was used alongside the Fahrenheit scale until it was 'upgraded' in the '60s.
Scientists generally use the Kelvin scale, which has the same magnitude as the Celsius scale, but another zero point, defined by the absolute zero point as defined by the laws of thermodynamics, easier said - 273 C or - 459 F.
In 1592 Galileo Galilei build the first device showing variation of hotness, called a thermoscope. This used the contraction of air to draw water into a tube to measure 'temperature'. In 1624, the word thermometer is used for the first time by the scientist Leurochon in a French scientific magazine. He describes a scale of 8 degrees of hotness. In 1654 the first 'modern' style thermometer is made by Fernando II de Medici, a sealed tube of glass filled with alcohol.
Ole Christiansen Romer proposed the first well known temperature scale in 1701, the Romer scale. Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, inventor of the still used Fahrenheit scale, corresponded with Romer and took ideas from him. In 1724 Fahrenheit proposed his well-known temperature scale. The zero point is determined by placing the thermometer in a mixture of ice, water and ammonium chloride. 32 degrees Fahrenheit is the freezing point of water and 212 F the boiling point. Thus, there are exactly 180 degrees Fahrenheit between freezing and boiling of water. The Fahrenheit scale was the primary temperature standard used for climatic, industrial and medical purposes in the English speaking world for over 200 years. In the 1960's this role was gradually taken over by the Celsius scale. Fahrenheit is still used in the US, Belize and US territories as Guam and Virgin Islands for everyday applications. The Celcius scale, named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celcius, was used alongside the Fahrenheit scale until it was 'upgraded' in the '60s.
Scientists generally use the Kelvin scale, which has the same magnitude as the Celsius scale, but another zero point, defined by the absolute zero point as defined by the laws of thermodynamics, easier said - 273 C or - 459 F.
