degree Fahrenheit

degree Fahrenheit
(°F)
   a traditional unit of temperature still used customarily in the United States. The unit was defined by the German physicist Daniel G. Fahrenheit (1686-1736), who also invented the mercury thermometer. Fahrenheit set 0° at the coldest temperature he could conveniently achieve using an ice and salt mixture, and it is said he intended to set 96° as the temperature of the human body. (If so, he was off a little there; normal oral temperature for humans is between 98 °F and 99 °F.) On this scale, the freezing point of water (at normal sea level atmospheric pressure) turned out to be about 32 °F and the boiling point about 212 °F. Eventually the scale was precisely defined by these two temperatures. 1°F equals 5/9 °C, but in converting between scales we have to be careful to adjust the zero points as well. To convert a temperature in °F to the Celsius scale, we must first subtract 32° and then multiply by 5/9. In the other direction, to convert a temperature in °C to the Fahrenheit scale, we must first multiply by 9/5 and then add 32°.

Dictionary of units of measurement. 2015.

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