Centigrade temperature scale

The Celsius scale, also known as the centigrade scale, is an SI scale and unit of measurement for temperature. As an SI derived unit, it is used by most countries in the world. It is named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius (1701–1744), who developed a similar temperature scale. The degree Celsius (symbol: °C) can refer to a specific temperature on the Celsius scale as well as a unit to indicate a temperature interval, a difference between two temperatures or an uncertainty. Before being renamed to honour Anders Celsius in 1948, the unit was called centigrade, from the Latin centum, which means 100, and gradus, which means steps.

The Celsius scale was based on 0 °C for the freezing point of water and 100 °C for the boiling point of water at 1 atm pressure following a change introduced in 1743 by Jean-Pierre Christin to reverse the Celsius thermometer scale (from water boiling at 0 degrees and ice melting at 100 degrees). This scale is widely taught in schools today. By international agreement the unit "degree Celsius" and the Celsius scale are currently defined by two different temperatures: absolute zero, and the triple point of Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water (VSMOW), a specially purified water. This definition also precisely relates the Celsius scale to the Kelvin scale, which defines the SI base unit of thermodynamic temperature with symbol K. Absolute zero, the lowest temperature possible, is defined as being exactly 0 K and −273.15 °C. The temperature of the triple point of water is defined as exactly 273.16 K (0.01 °C; 32.02 °F).

Thus, a temperature difference of one degree Celsius and that of one kelvin are exactly the same, with the null point of the Kelvin scale (0 K) at exactly −273.15 °C, and the null point of the Celsius scale (0 °C) at exactly 273.15 K.

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