LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Celsius: Degrees Celsius
built 622 days ago
Anders Celsius was the first to perform and publish careful experiments aiming at the definition of an international temperature scale on scientific grounds. In his Swedish paper "Observations of two persistent degrees on a thermometer" he reports on experiments to check that the freezing point is independent of latitude (and of atmospheric pressure). He determined the dependence of the boiling of water with atmospheric pressure (in excellent agreement with modern data). He further gave a rule for the determination of the boiling point if the barometric pressure deviates from a certain standard pressure[1].
Source:
The degree Celsius is a special name for the kelvin for use in expressing Celsius temperatures.[8] The degree Celsius is ... subject to the same rules as the kelvin with regard to the use of its unit name and symbol. Thus, besides expressing specific temperatures along its scale (e.g. “Gallium melts at 29.7646 °C” and “The temperature outside is 23 degrees Celsius”), the degree Celsius is also suitable for expressing temperature intervals: differences between temperatures or their uncertainties (e.g. “The output of the heat exchanger is hotter by 40 degrees Celsius”, and “Our standard uncertainty is ±3 °C”).[9] Because of this dual usage, one must not rely upon the unit name or its symbol to denote that a quantity is a temperature interval; it must be unambiguous through context or explicit statement that the quantity is an interval.[10]
Source:
Degrees Celsius (°C) and kelvins (K) have the same magnitude. The only difference between the scales is their starting points: 0 K is "absolute zero," while 0°C is the freezing point of water. One can convert degrees Celsius to kelvins by adding 273.15; ... the boiling point of water, 100°C, is 373.15 K.
Source:
In addition to his early observations of the aurora borealis, Celsius carried out many other astronomical studies. He developed a photometric method of measuring the intensity of starlight and assiduously cataloged the results he obtained for hundreds of stars. He ... kept meteorological records, but was unhappy with the inaccuracy of thermometers in use at the time. Celsius devised a centigrade temperature scale for use with mercury thermometers that fixed the boiling point of water at zero and the freezing point of water at the 100-degree mark. He described the new scale to the Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1742. Not long after Celsius died in 1744, Carolus Linnaeus suggested inverting the centigrade scale (making 0 degrees the freezing point and 100 degrees the boiling point of water), and it is in this form that it continues to be used today.
Source:
When Celsius introduced his scale in 1747, it was the reverse of today's scale, with the boiling point of water being zero degrees and the freezing point being one hundred degrees. A year later the two constants were switched, creating the temperature scale used today. Celsius originally called his scale centigrade (from the Latin for "hundred steps"). For years it was simply referred to as the Swedish thermometer. In 1948 most of the world adopted the hundred-point scale, calling it the Celsius scale.
Source:
The degree Celsius (°C) scale was devised by dividing the range of temperature between the freezing and boiling temperatures of pure water at standard atmospheric conditions (sea level pressure) into 100 equal parts. Temperatures on this scale were at one time known as degrees centigrade... it is no longer correct to use that terminology. [The official name was changed from "centigrade degree" to "Celsius degree" by the 9th General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) in 1948.]
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Degrees Celsius