Question

The Celsius temperature scale is also something called the centigrade scale. Why is this?

Answer 1

There are three temperature scales in use today, Fahrenheit, Celsius and Kelvin.

Fahrenheit temperature scale is a scale based on 32 for the freezing point of water and 212 for the boiling point of water, the interval between the two being divided into 180 parts. The 18th-century German physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit originally took as the zero of his scale the temperature of an equal ice-salt mixture and selected the values of 30 and 90 for the freezing point of water and normal body temperature, respectively; these later were revised to 32 and 96, but the final scale required an adjustment to 98.6 for the latter value.

Until the 1970s the Fahrenheit temperature scale was in general common use in English-speaking countries; the Celsius, or centigrade, scale was employed in most other countries and for scientific purposes worldwide. Since that time, however, most English-speaking countries have officially adopted the Celsius scale. The conversion formula for a temperature that is expressed on the Celsius (C) scale to its Fahrenheit (F) representation is: F = 9/5C + 32.

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