The ancient temperature scale bears the name of the 17th century German physicist Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit (1686–1736). The scientist created a thermometer, for which he proposed a system with convenient starting points for measuring. The smallest distance between divisions of the device was called "degree Fahrenheit" in honor of the inventor. This scale is now used less and less due to the transition in the 70s of the XX century to the International System of Units (SI). Knowing the rules for converting one unit to another will help to better understand the meaning of the title of Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451 for residents of those countries where only the metric system is used.
Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit
German researcher G. Fahrenheit was born in Danzig, he was engaged in experiments in physics all his life, he invented tools used in metrology. In 1710, the scientist began to create a temperature scale and an instrument for measuring the heating and cooling of bodies. One of the starting points in this work was the observation of the state of the mixturefrom ice and water, as well as the evaporation of water when boiling.
Fahrenheit used colored alcohol and mercury to measure temperature. The disadvantage of liquid metal is that it freezes at low temperatures. Gabriel Fahrenheit constantly improved his instruments, was elected a member of the Royal Society in England. At one time, it was believed that the thermometers created by the German physicist were irretrievably lost. There were only two copies, but then the third original device invented by the scientist was found.
Temperature measuring device
Various thermometers have existed for about 500 years, the honor of creating these important instruments is shared by the greatest scientists of the Middle Ages. In the first samples, the initial points for the scale were unsuccessfully chosen, and the thermometers created using divisions of different "prices" were inconvenient in everyday life.
Gabriel Fahrenheit's merit lies in the fact that he invented a device of modern form with an accurate measurement scale. The researcher proposed the transition of ice into water as a starting point, taking into account its boiling point. Modern household thermometers in English-speaking countries bear little resemblance to those invented in the Middle Ages, now most often marks are applied in the range from 0 to 132 °F (degrees Fahrenheit).
Temperature Scale
The most important parameters of the scale of the device created by Fahrenheit:
- point 0 °F is the temperature at which the ice is located;
- 32 °F - ice melting and back to solid state;
- 212 degrees Fahrenheit -boiling water.
Degree Fahrenheit began to be denoted by the symbol °F after the invention of the thermometer. The Swedish researcher Anders Celsius, more accurately than his German colleague, set the transition temperatures of water to different aggregate states. On the scale proposed by the Swedish scientist, there was also the number 100, but it corresponded to the melting of ice. Celsius took 0 degrees as the boiling point of water. More than 250 years have passed since this scale was reversed: the temperature of the transformation of ice into water was taken as 0 ° C, and its boiling point was designated as 100.
Main temperature scale in metric system
Since 1960, most countries in the world have adopted the metric system, which uses two scales: Celsius and Kelvin. The most common thermometers in everyday life, technology and meteorology, which are marked with divisions in Celsius, taking into account the transformation of the most common terrestrial substance - water. In the Kelvin scale used in scientific research, the temperature reference is the state of the body in which it has the lowest internal energy. The United States and Great Britain have not fully adopted the International System of Units (SI). In these and several other English-speaking countries, thermometers with different scales are used.
Temperature comparison
The Fahrenheit temperature scale ranges from 0° to 100°. The same range on the Celsius scale corresponds to the interval from −18° to 38°. On the Kelvin scalethe term "absolute zero" is used. This is a temperature that is -273.2°C or -459.7°F. You can also translate 451 degrees Fahrenheit, which will be 233 ° С.
Different temperatures can be converted into each other, and these calculations are in demand in the USA and Great Britain, where, as part of the standardization process, the use of the Fahrenheit scale was abandoned in many areas of scientific activity and production, but it still remains commonly used in everyday life. If necessary, residents of English-speaking countries convert Fahrenheit to degrees Celsius, knowing that the temperature interval of 1 ° C is equal to 1.8 ° F.
Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451
Until 1960, the Fahrenheit scale was the main one in English-speaking countries, used in climatology, medicine, industry and everyday life. Ray Bradbury finished his novel in 1953, and in the epigraph he indicated that 451 degrees Fahrenheit is the ignition temperature of paper. The protagonist of the work lives in the distant future and works as a "fireman", but does not fight fire, but burns books.
The American classic of the science fiction genre devoted his dystopian novel to the problems of moral choice, the struggle against totalitarian systems, which fascism became the personification of in the 20th century. After coming to power in Germany, Adolf Hitler initiated the destruction of libraries and the burning of books. In this way, the Fuhrer wanted to eradicate any manifestations of dissent, to impose Nazi ideology on fellow citizens. Antique temperature scaleand the physical value - degrees Fahrenheit - are gradually becoming a thing of the past, but the ideas raised in the novel remain relevant.
