On November 27, 1701, Anders Celsius was born in Sweden. In the future, this boy was destined to become a great scientist. He made more than one discovery.
Anders Celsius: biography
Anders' father, Niels Celsius, as well as his two grandfathers were professors. Many other relatives of the future scientist also lived in science. So, his uncle on his father's side, Olof Celsius, was a famous botanist, orientalist, geologist and historian. It is not surprising that the boy not only inherited a gift, but also followed in the footsteps of his ancestors.
In 1730, Anders Celsius became a professor of astronomy and mathematics at Uppsala University. His student was Johan Vallerius himself, a professor of medicine, a naturalist, a chemist, from whose pen more than one scientific work came out. Celsius worked at the university for 14 years. And in April 1744 he died of tuberculosis. It happened in his hometown.
It was this man who created the famous scale for measuring temperature. A few years later, she received his name. In addition, an asteroid was named after the scientist. And Christer Fuglesang (Swedish astronaut) took part in the special Celsius Mission. Today there are several streets in Sweden that bear the scientist's name. They settled down incities such as:
- Malma.
- Gothenburg.
- Stockholm.
- Uppsala.
Temperature Scale
Thanks to the temperature measurement system created by Celsius, he forever immortalized his name. Mankind has been using its discovery for more than 300 years. Today, the degree Celsius is part of the International System of Units.
As far back as the middle of the 17th century, Dutch and English physicists suggested using boiling water and melting ice as starting points for temperature. However, this idea did not catch on. And only in 1742 Anders Celsius decided to refine it and developed his own temperature scale. True, it was originally like this:
- 0 degrees is water boiling;
- -100 degrees - water freezing.
And only after the death of the scientist the scale was turned over. As a result, 0 degrees turned into the freezing point of water, and 100 degrees into its boiling point. A few years later, one chemist in his scientific treatise called such a scale "Celsius". Since then, she has received such a name.
Shape of the Earth
The idea of knowing the exact dimensions of the entire globe in the 18th century was a fixed idea. To do this, scientists needed to know exactly what the length of one degree of the meridian is at the pole and at the equator. To get at least to any pole, at that time good equipment was required. Such technologies did not yet exist. Therefore, Celsius, preoccupied with this issue, decided to conduct his calculations and research in Lapland. It wasthe northernmost part of Sweden.
All measurements were made by Anders Celsius together with PL Moreau de Maupertuis. The same expedition was arranged to Ecuador, to the equator. After the research, the scientist compared the readings. It turned out that Newton was absolutely right in his assumptions. The Earth is an ellipsoid that is slightly flattened directly at the poles.
Exploring the Northern Lights
All his life Anders Celsius was interested in a unique natural phenomenon - the northern lights. He was always struck by his power, beauty, scale. He described about 300 observations of this phenomenon. Among them were not only his ideas about what he saw, but also others.
It was Celsius who first thought about the nature of this unusual phenomenon. He drew attention to the fact that the intensity of the northern lights largely depends on the deviations of the compass needle. So it has something to do with the magnetism of the Earth. He turned out to be right. Only his theory was confirmed by his descendants.
Uppsala Observatory
In 1741, the scientist founded the Uppsala Observatory. Today it is the oldest such establishment in all of Sweden. It was headed by Anders Celsius himself. Interesting facts in science were discovered within the walls of this astronomical observatory. Celsius himself measured the brightness of various stars here, A. J. Angstrom conducted his optical and physical experiments here, and K. Angstrom studied solar radiation.
Anders Celsius is a brilliant scientist who has done a lot for the world of science. Today his discoveriesused by all mankind. And each of us hears his name every day.
