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| == Fahrenheit scale == | == Fahrenheit scale == | ||
| Fahrenheit needed to associate a scale with his ]s in order to use them to record temperature. His initial work with a temperature scale was based on three benchmarks. His low temperature mark was the coldest ] attainable under laboratory conditions at that time: a mixture of water, ice, and ]<ref>Fred Senese: ''Why isn't 0 °F the lowest possible temperature for a salt/ice/water mixture?'', 2005 </ref>. Fahrenheit defined that as 0 °F (approx. -17.8 °C). Next was the freezing point of water, which he set at 32 °F. Finally, he defined the human body temperature as |
Fahrenheit needed to associate a scale with his ]s in order to use them to record temperature. His initial work with a temperature scale was based on three benchmarks. His low temperature mark was the coldest ] attainable under laboratory conditions at that time: a mixture of water, ice, and ]<ref>Fred Senese: ''Why isn't 0 °F the lowest possible temperature for a salt/ice/water mixture?'', 2005 </ref>. Fahrenheit defined that as 0 °F (approx. -17.8 °C). Next was the freezing point of water, which he set at 32 °F. Finally, he defined the human body temperature as 98.6 °F. | ||
| Later, with the aid of a ] thermometer that could measure higher temperatures, Fahrenheit adjusted his scale<ref>John H. Lienhard </ref> so the high end was the boiling point of water, which he put at 212 °F. With the adjustment, normal human body temperature moved to the now familiar ] °F. Fahrenheit's final temperature scale has 180 degrees between the freezing and boiling points of water. | Later, with the aid of a ] thermometer that could measure higher temperatures, Fahrenheit adjusted his scale<ref>John H. Lienhard </ref> so the high end was the boiling point of water, which he put at 212 °F. With the adjustment, normal human body temperature moved to the now familiar ] °F. Fahrenheit's final temperature scale has 180 degrees between the freezing and boiling points of water. | ||
Revision as of 01:13, 15 April 2008
Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (24 May 1686 – 16 September 1736) was a German physicist and engineer who worked most of his life in the Dutch Republic. The Fahrenheit (°F) scale of temperature is named after him.
Biography
Fahrenheit was born in Danzig in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth on 24 May 1686. The Fahrenheits were a merchant family who had moved from one Hanseatic League city to the Polish. Fahrenheit's great-grandfather had lived in Rostock, although research suggests that the Fahrenheit family originated in Hildesheim. Daniel's grandfather Reinhold Fahrenheit vom Kneiphof moved from Kneiphof (Königsberg) to Danzig and settled there as a merchant in 1650. Father Daniel Fahrenheit married Concordia (widowed name, Runge), daughter of the well-known Danzig business family of Schumann. Daniel Gabriel was the eldest of the five Fahrenheit children who survived childhood (two sons, three daughters).
Upon the accidental early death of his parents, by consumption of poisonous mushrooms, Gabriel had to take up business training as a merchant in Russia. However, his interest in natural sciences caused him to take up studies and experimentation in that field, and after travelling around, he settled 1717 in The Hague with the trade of glassblowing, making barometers, altimeters, and thermometers. From 1718 onwards, he gave lectures in chemistry in Amsterdam, and became a member of the Royal Society in 1724. Fahrenheit died in The Hague.
Fahrenheit scale
Fahrenheit needed to associate a scale with his thermometers in order to use them to record temperature. His initial work with a temperature scale was based on three benchmarks. His low temperature mark was the coldest temperature attainable under laboratory conditions at that time: a mixture of water, ice, and ammonium chloride. Fahrenheit defined that as 0 °F (approx. -17.8 °C). Next was the freezing point of water, which he set at 32 °F. Finally, he defined the human body temperature as 98.6 °F.
Later, with the aid of a mercury thermometer that could measure higher temperatures, Fahrenheit adjusted his scale so the high end was the boiling point of water, which he put at 212 °F. With the adjustment, normal human body temperature moved to the now familiar 98 °F. Fahrenheit's final temperature scale has 180 degrees between the freezing and boiling points of water.
The Fahrenheit scale was widely used in Europe until the switch to the degree Celsius scale. It is still used for everyday temperature measurements by the general population in the United States and less so in the UK.
References
- Horst Kant, G.D. Fahrenheit / R.-A.F. de Réaumur / A. Celsius, 1984.
- Fred Senese: Why isn't 0 °F the lowest possible temperature for a salt/ice/water mixture?, 2005
- John H. Lienhard