given the difference from a standard barometric pressure.
Celsius placed zero at the boiling point of water
and one hundred at the melting point of ice
and named his scale centigrade
meaning “one hundred steps.”
Independently of Celsius, Jean-Pierre Christin
created a temperature scale using the same points
but placed zero at the melting point
and one hundred at the boiling point.
It turned out that the French and Spanish
use the word centigrade
for one ten-thousandths of a right angle,
so in 1948 international committees
renamed the scale to honor Celsius.
Metric degrees
Having a hundred degrees
between melting and boiling
the Celsius scale makes sense
to have become adopted
as part of the metric system.
Arbitrary decisions
The scales of de Réaumur and Celsius
went backwards, where the temperature got smaller
as things got hotter.
Having a decision
can be more important
than what the decision is.
It would be good if we
were all on the same wavelength;
however, things can be arbitrary and people
do not like to change frequency.
“To an arbitrary degree” has
a sound that rings true, somewhat
like our weather forecasts. Someone
may be experiencing 20 °C nearby;
however, where we sit, the air is balmy.
Properly speaking, we are not talking about the centigrade
scale here; we are talking about the Celsius scale. I use the
retrograde term only because it is the term that Anders Celsius
used.
Properly speaking, we are not talking about the centigrade scale here; we are talking about the Celsius scale. I use the retrograde term only because it is the term that Anders Celsius used.
See also in The book of science:
Readings on wikipedia:
Other readings: