Whodunit Wednesday: Temperatures

It’s going to be a warm September day. Not that it is all that common for a September day to be so warm here. It is not unheard of, but 30 degrees - which is considered tropical - is pretty warm. And then our living room gets even much warmer. We have lots of windows that let in light, which is a good thing in the dark winter months. But on a warm day, light means warmth. 

But how can 30 degrees be warm? It is under freezing! Of course here in Europe we use a different scale for temperature. In Europe we use the Celsius scale (or centigrade), which goes from 0-100 degrees (the points where water freezes or boils). It can of course also go further. Temperatures below freezing become negative temperatures, for example -10 degrees. Although Belgium gets negative temperatures, its is nothing like what people in other places get (like in Minnesota or North Dakota in the US). Temperatures past the boiling point of water simply go higher than 100. 

In the Untied States a completely different scale is used to measure temperature. The Fahrenheit scale says that water freezes at 32 degrees and boils at 212 degrees. So 0 degrees in Fahrenheit is quite cold, well below the freezing point. On the other hand, someone using the Fahrenheit scale might say that it is 104 degrees outside. A European would amazed that anyone could even be outside in such temperatures - well above the boiling point (on the Celsius scale). 

So where did these scales come from? Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit in the 18th century. He originally used a 0-100 scale as well, but he measured the freezing point of a brine and the body temperature of a human (which is right around 96 degrees Fahrenheit). But by the 20th century it was the freezing and boiling point of water that was measured and became the beginning and ending points. 

Fahrenheit was born in Poland, but was of German heritage. At the age of 15 he moved to the Dutch republic where he lived the rest of his life. So he can be claimed by Poland, Germany and the Netherlands. In any case, it is still going to be a very warm day today.