Origin of the Fahrenheit Scale?

Question

Any ideas why it is the way it is? With centigrade, it seems reasonable that someone would have chosen 2 significant temperatures (such as freezing point and boiling point of water) and assign nice round numbers to them. It's intuitive and common sense. Fahrenheit, however, is different. It seems to lack the simplicity, intuitiveness, and common sense of centigrade.

So, my question: why is the Fahrenheit scale the way it is? How is it derived?

Answer 1

I think that 0 is about as cold as it got where Fahrenheit lived.

Blood heat was about 100

so this makes the rather odd 212 for boiling

Answer 2

Farenheit s used to measure smaller changes in temperature which are significant for example in medicine and science... It's a bit like how the kitchen fitter and the builder measure everything in mm rather than cm because it's a much finer scale - you will get a more accurate reading.

Answer 3

German physicist who invented the mercury thermometer and developed the scale of temperature that bears his name (1686-1736) [syn: Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit]
http://www.bookrags.com/Gabriel_Fahrenheit

Answer 4

Also check-out the Kelvin scale. I think thats the one where zero is at the coldest temp' thought possible.

Answer 5

0 deg F = frezzing point of mercury
100 deg F = tempreture of a normal healthy person

Answer 6

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_scale

Answer 7

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit
Hope this helps.