What is Celsius?

Many thermometers you can buy in stores have two sets of measurements: one with F, and one with C.  The United States uses the Fahrenheit scale, the one with 32 as the freezing point and 212 as the boiling point of water. In addition to the U.S., only a handful of countries use the Fahrenheit scale: Cayman Islands, Palau, Belize, the Bahamas, and Canada as a supplementary scale to Celsius. Meteorologists and weather forecasters in those countries primarily use the Fahrenheit scale to tell you how warm or cool the air will be. Baking instructions give the needed temperature for the oven in degrees Fahrenheit.

The Celsius scale was developed in the early 18th Century by Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius (who else would he name it after?). His initial scale was different than the one used today, in that 0C was the boiling point of water and 100C was the freezing point. It wasn't until after his death in 1744 that the scale was reversed to its modern setup. A 100 degree system makes sense to a lot of people, in that it falls in line with the base-10 setup of the metric system (10mm=1cm, 100cm=1m, 1,000mL=1L).

If you head overseas in the future and find yourself watching a local forecast where temperatures are in Celsius, there is a formula to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit and back.

(F) = (C) x 9/5 + 32
(C) = (F - 32) x 5/9

Common Conversions	C	F
Freezing Point of Water (Rounded)	0	32
Room Temperature	20	68
Body Temperature	37	98.6
Boiling Point of Water	100	212