By Degrees
Thermometer watching is such a pervasive pastime--bordering on obsession--in the Valley during the sizzling summer months, that it’s hard to imagine a time when temperature gauges didn’t exist. but as late as the 17th century, such luminaries as Galileo had tried and failed to invent a reasonably accurate thermometer. Galileo’s crude instrument consisted of a glass flask plunged upside down into a vessel of water to trap air inside. As the air expanded due to heat, the water level rose, and vice versa. As usual, Galileo was on the right track, but constant changes in atmospheric pressure robbed the instrument of accuracy. Around 1640, a Catholic cardinal, Leopoldo de Medici, made the first closed-glass liquid thermometer. This far more accurate instrument, known as the Florentine thermometer, was partly filled with distilled colored wine that would expand and contract with temperature changes.
Mercury Rising
The first mercury thermometer was introduced in 1714 by German scientist, Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit. He set zero as the coldest temperature the could create by mixing ice and salt. He set 32 as the freezing point of water and then added 180 to establish water’s boiling point as 212. The next major scale was introduced in 1742, when Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius suggested the degree span between water’s freezing and boiling points be 100. Curiously, he placed the freezing point at 100 and boiling at zero--scientists later turned his scale upside down.
212 Degrees: Water Boils
165 Degrees: Maximum temperature the naked body can endure
116 Degrees: Highest temperature recorded in Woodland Hills
98.6 Degrees: Normal body temperature
50 Degrees: Minimum temperature the naked body can endure
32 Degrees: Water freezes
18 Degrees: Lowest temperature recorded in Woodland Hills
0 Degrees: Zero. Set by Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit as the lowest temperature he could achieve by mixing ice and salt.
Note: Above temperatures are in Fahrenheit
Converting Fahrenheit to Celsius
Begin by subtracting 32 from the Fahrenheit number
Divide the answer by 9
Multiply that answer by 5
Converting Celsius to Fahrenheit
Begin by multiplying the Celsius temperature by 9
Divide the answer by 5
Add 32
*
Freezing
Fahrenheit: 32
Celsius: 0
*
Human Body Temperature
Fahrenheit: 98.6
Celsius: 37
*
Boiling Point
Fahrenheit: 212
Celsius: 100
