When I was young we used the Centigrade scale of temperature, now people use Celcius. Why?

Answer 1

The Celsius temperature scale was developed in 1742 by Anders Celsius, a Swedish astronomer. Interestingly, Celsius originally set 0°C as the boiling point of water and 100°C as the freezing point of water. Soon thereafter, J. P. Christine revised the scale to its present form—with 0°C as the freezing point and 100°C as the boiling point of water. The Celsius scale is identical to the Centigrade scale.

As to why we use Celcius not centigrade these days, prseumably it's to recognise it's original inventor.

Answer 2

The two are the same - it's called Celsius after its originator, and centigrade is a descriptive term indicating that the scale from freezing water to boiling water is divided into 100 parts (centi - one hundred, grade - step).

Answer 3

The "Centigrade Scale" was designed by a fellow named Celsius. He gave a "grade 0" to the temperature corresponding to the freezing point of water (that is pure H2O), and a "grade 1" to the temperature of boiling water; then he divided the range into 100 equal steps (prefix centi-) and called each step a "centi-grade" - hence the name "Centigrade" or "degree of Celsius". On this scale, the normal temperature of a human body is about 37 degrees.
You may have heard of degrees of Fahrenheit..... Fahrenheit observed the range of environmental temperatures for several years, then called the lowest observed temperature "0 degrees" and the highest observed temperature "100 degrees". On his temperature scale water freezes at 32 degrees, and boils at 212 degrees; human temperature is about 98 degrees
The span from the freezing to the boiling points of water is 100 Centigrades (degrees Celsius) or 180 degrees of Fahrenheit. That is, a temperature difference of 1 Centigrade is equivalent to 1.8 degrees of Fahrenheit.
To convert from degrees Fahrenheit to degrees of Celsius, first subtract 32 from degrees Fahrenheit, the divide this number by 1.8 and you get temperature in degrees of Celsius. Conversely, multiply the number of degrees of Celsius by 1.8 and add 32 to get degrees of Fahrenheit.
There are other temperature scales as well, of which the most famous one is Kelvin's scale, also known as the "Absolute Temperature Scale". Water freezes at about 273.1 degrees Kelvin and boils at about 373.1 degrees Kelvin ( the span is 100 degrees just as the Centigrade scale). At zero degrees Kelvin ("absolute zero") all molecular motion stops, making the Kelvin's scale a measure of molecular motion. Chemists and Physicists always work with the absolute temperature scale.

Answer 4

Celsius and centigrade are the same thing, a metric scale of temperature measurement. Are your referring to Fahrenheit, the imperial version?

Answer 5

Centigrade means that there are 100 or centi gradiations between boiling and freezing point of water. It was devised by Mr. Celcius and now is named after him.

Answer 6

same thing, centigrade means 100 grades the difference between waters freezing and boiling point.

the scale was devised by a man called celsius and the scale can also be named after him.

Answer 7

It is the same scale.only named Celsius to honoree the Sweden searcher Celsius more detail on the link. The definition of the degree Celsius has changed , but what is important for you in practice , one degree Celsius is one degree centigrade

Answer 8

"Centigrade" sounded too Russian and fell out of use during the cold war.

Answer 9

I think Centigrade was just an Anglicised version of the name. It is now more correctly referred to as Celsius

Answer 10

Same scale. It was renamed for the man who invented it. This was done by the International Standard Organization (ISO) so they could "feel good" about thamselves.