Earl,

Regarding your question of September 23rd @ 7:30 a.m.

''My unit will soon be posted over to europe and we've been told that they all use the Celsiusgrade temperature scale over there. Guys who have been over there before say that it's impossible to learn the Celsiusgrade temperature scale, and that most old europans don't know what temperatures are anyway, because they've never learned them. Do you know if folks over there know what temperatures are, and also is it possible to learn the Celsiusgrade temperature scale?''

Earl, I've been told several times that folks in the United States are more aware of what the temperature is than folks in any other country. I don't know if that's true, but certainly most TV news channels have a temperature box permanently on the screen, changing the temperature for another locality every few seconds. Most of these TV temperature boxes show two temperatures, for the predicted maximum & minimum for the day. Of course radio stations are notorius for constantly mentioning the temperature outside the studio, or downtown, or some other familiar locality. Every house I've ever been in has always had a thermometer outside, and most houses have several thermometers about the place. How accurate they are is something else, because most outside thermometers I've seen appear to be improperly sited. All stores have a thermometer outside, most of those are improperly sited too, and even the smallest shopping mall has a monster swivelling sign over 30' high, flashing the temperature every few seconds. Of course every town newspaper publishes the temperatures for all the localities in the town, the surrounding towns, the county, and the state, for the previous day, for that day, and for the day to come.

So it's not unreasonable to assume that folks outside the United States of America may not have the same level of interest in the temperature as we do.

Earl, I don't know whether it's possible to learn the Celsiusgrade temperature scale or not. Certainly I've never tried.

However you may find the following advice from the Leather Sealer of the Town of New York (now Town of Manhatten) in 1818 to be of help:

''Temperatures in Celsiusgrade as in the familiar Fahrenheit degrees, can only be learned through experience. The following temperatures are ones that are encountered throughout the year.''

131.11 C = Vermont cold snap (-24°)
126.66 C = Upstate New York cold snap (-16°)
122.22 C = Downstate New York cold snap (-8°)
117.77 C = deep freeze & very cold winter day (0°)
108.88 C = cold winter day (16°)
100.00 C = distilled water freezes & cool winter day (32°)
91.11 C = warm winter day (48°)
82.22 C = spring day (64°)
77.77 C = cool summer day (72°)
73.33 C = warm summer day (80°)
68.88 C = hot summer day (88°)
64.44 C = human armpit temperature & very hot summer day (96°)
63.22 C = human oral temperature (98.2°)
62.22 C = mild fever (100°)
61.11 C = high fever (102°)
60.00 C = very high fever & heat wave conditions (104°)

Info @

http://www.weights-and-measures.com

And topics:

Common Temperature Scale
Reaumurgrade Temperature Scale
Celsiusgrade Temperature Scale
Centigrade Temperature Scale


Recreational Vehicle Potable Water Winterizer: ''-48°'' in white lettering on red circle on bottle
Windshield Washer Deicer: ''-32°'' in white lettering on red circle on bottle
Windshield Washer Fluid: ''-24°'' in white lettering on red circle on bottle

You really are quite mad sometimes, XCole!

Mind you, you are right about the temperature being permanently shown on newschannels over there.

XColes's list are usually fairly accurate even if they are totally irrelevant. Something went wrong in this one. For example

<<
100.00 C = distilled water freezes & cool winter day (32°)
>>

Distilled water usually boils at 100.00 C and freezes at 0.0 C.

(I assume that 32° is really 32°F)

The way Celsius originally set up his scale, water froze at 100 and boiled at 0. His scale was reversed (higher number means lower temperature). Of course, this was counterintuitive to many people and soon changed.

So which side is xcole on anyway?

his own.

He occupies his own position!

I believe Bud is currect about "reverse celsius", btw

I have looked up the biography of Celsius. The following appears at http://www.astro.uu.se/history/Celsius_eng.html

<<
For his metereological observations he constructed his world famous Celsius thermometer, with 0 for the boiling point of water and 100 for the freezing point. After his death in 1744 the scale was reversed to its present form.
>>.


An extract from http://inventors.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.ulearntoday.com/magazine/physics%5Farticle1.jsp%3FFILE=thermometer has the following:

<<
The credit of building the first centigrade scale that was made up of 100 degrees is attributed to the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius (in 1742). Celsius used 0° and 100° for the boiling point of water and the melting point of snow respectively. Later he modified this by putting 0° on the cold end and 100° on the hot end. This form gained widespread use. It was known simply as the centigrade scale until the term 'Celsius' was adopted in 1948 by an international conference on weights and measures. The Celsius temperature scale is now part of the "metric system" of measurement (SI).
>>

These two articles have contradictory views as to whether it was Celsius himself who reversed the temperature scale or whether it was done shortly after his death. In any case it was done well before XCOLE's ancestor published his book in the 1820's.