We explain what degrees Celsius are and who was the creator of this unit of measurement. Also, what are degrees Kelvin and Fahrenheit.
What are degrees Celsius (°C)?
degrees Celsius is called a unit of temperature measurement erroneously known as degrees Celsius and represented by the symbol °C. This unit pays tribute to its creator, the Swedish physicist and astronomer Anders Celsius, and is equivalent in caloric intensity to the Kelvin scale, so it can be defined with the following formula:
Temperature (°C) = Temperature (K) – 273.15
Paradoxically, William Thompson, creator of the Kelvin scale, created it based on the Celsius scale, since it is later.
On the other hand, there is another temperature scale which is the so-called Fahrenheit scale. The conversion from degrees Celsius to degrees Fahrenheit is done using the following formula:
Temperature (°F) = 1.8 x Temperature (°C)+ 32
The degree Celsius scale places its zero point (0) at about 0.01 degrees below the triple point of water: that in which the three states of matter, solid, liquid and gaseous, coexist in equilibrium.
Initially, Its creator had based it on the freezing and boiling points of water assigning them 100 and 0 degrees respectively, so that the warmer the temperature, the lower the temperature. This logic would be reversed around 1744 when Jean-Pierre Christin and Charles Linnaeus proposed reversing it.
See also: Thermometer
Anders Celsius
The creator of the Celsius scale was Anders Celsius (1701-1744), a scientist of Swedish origin. Born in the Swedish Empire, was a professor of astronomy at Uppsala University where he supervised the construction of his observatory, which he was in charge of since 1740.
He became interested in observing the northern lights and in measuring the flattening of the planet at its poles, although his best-known scientific contribution was the creation of the temperature scale that bears his name, which he proposed to the Swedish Academy of Sciences as a replacement for the Farenheit scale, originally German.
He died in 1744, a victim of tuberculosis. However, in life He enjoyed numerous recognitions in the scientific area as was his acceptance into the Royal Society, the Leopoldina Academy of Natural Sciences or the Prussian Academy of Sciences. Later, one of the craters on the Moon was named in his honor.
Kelvin degrees
Created by William Thompson Kelvin (called Lord Kelvin) in 1848, it was established using the Celsius scale, that is, relocating its zero point (0) to make it coincide with the so-called absolute zero (-273.15 °C, minimum possible temperature). ). This thermometric unit is represented by the letter K and is considered the “absolute temperature”, which is why It is used in the scientific field, especially in physics and chemistry.
Kelvin degrees are also used to measure color temperature in film, video and photography. That is, this scale is used to measure the color compared to what a black body heated to a certain temperature in degrees kelvin would emit.
Degrees Fahrenheit
Represented with the symbol °F, the degree Fahrenheit It was proposed by the German physicist and engineer Daniel Gabriel Farenheit in 1724. According to its scale, the freezing and boiling points of water are 32 °F and 212 °F respectively.
Fahrenheit determined the zero point of the scale through a usual refrigerant mixture: ice, water and ammonium chloride. This is because he wanted to abolish the negative scales of the Rømer scale used until then.
References
- “Degrees Celsius” in enciclopedia.us.es
- “Degree Celsius” in Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.
- Metric Conversions.
