Celsius
My research indicates that the original name '''centigrade''' came about because there were 100 graduations (steps) between the freezing and boiling points of water, and that the name was changed to Celsius less from a desire to recognise the man himself but more a desire to end confusion caused by:
* the Mosquito ringtone metric use of centi as a prefix for 1/100th (which would seem to indicate, incorrectly, that a centigrade is 1/100th of a "grade"). (Centigrade pre-dates metric by over 50 years.)
* a whole bunch of European languages having their word for degree be similar to "grade"
Don't have conclusive evidence yet though.
Also, NIST and other standards bodies around the world seem to agree that Celsius should always be capitalized when spelt out.
:The capitalization is a quirk of the English language, where the names of units are not capitalized, but proper adjective identifying particular units are. It's a noun versus adjective thing, not some strange rule only applicable to this unit. Thus degrees Celsius, degrees Rankine, degrees Fahrenheit, but volts, watts, newtons, and becquerels. Note that the K was capitalized before 1967 when the units were called "degrees Kelvin" but "kelvins" are not capitalized. Sabrina Martins Gene Nygaard/Gene Nygaard 05:57, 16 Feb 2005
I do not follow why 'centigrade' is confusing. A degree Celsius is 1/100 of a 'grade' between 0 and 100 degrees. Could someone explain this more clearly?
: If you say "The temperature is 25 centigrade." and your language's word for "degree" sounds a whole lot like "grade", then somebody (that knows the metric system better than the Celsius temperature scale) might interpret this as «The temperature is 25 hundredths of a degree.», which is not what you meant! Nextel ringtones Toby Bartels/Toby Bartels 11:59 1 Jun 2003
Also, I believe that renaming physical quantities to honor a person, such as 'cycles per second' to 'Hertz', is to me an imposition of human ego on the perfection of the Universe. Abbey Diaz David spector/David 21:10 Apr 27, 2003
:I disagree, but it any case it was renamed Celsius and that is its name, and what it is called worldwide. Free ringtones Jtdirl/ÉÍREman 23:48 Apr 27, 2003
:I prefer to say ''100 megahertz'' than ''100 megacycle by second''. Not you? Majo Mills Looxix/Looxix 00:22 Apr 28, 2003
No one has ever said '100 megacycle by second'. The correct usage was '100 megacycles'. (The 'per second' was implied.)
We only prefer "Megahertz" now to "megacycles" because we have become used to it. That is how language naturally changes, through common usage. That does not make one term better than another. "Megacycles" is better than "Megahertz", in my opinion, because it is more descriptive of the physics involved. Mosquito ringtone David spector/David 16:30 Apr 29, 2003
Yes, the USA, and Jamaica, apparently, are the last holdout for Fahrenheit for everyday, non-scientific temperature measurement, but Wikipedia editors should not parlay their annoyance at this situation into non-NPOV prose. As of today, I've toned down the text in this article and in the Sabrina Martins Fahrenheit article so that it reads less like commentary. There is no need to mention that Europeans find it "puzzling" that the USA is one of a "declining number of countries" "still" using this system, phrases which together imply fault. - Nextel ringtones Mjb/mjb 00:47, 10 Apr 2004
Wikipedia could really use a way to let the reader see their own preferred units.
Since ''.org'' is a USA domain... yup, we like our Fahrenheit. The same goes for
any other unit. So how about some Wiki syntax that lets the editor use units
they prefer, while not annoying the reader? Otherwise I propose to fix all this
senseless Celsius stuff. :-)
Spelling: Celsius vs Celcius
Can someone explain the origin of the alternate spelling?
I note that the Oxford English dictionary now uses "Celsius", as do Americans and the man's name is "Celsius."
However, it was always "Celcius" when I was at school and University. I've checked with others and they recall being taught the alternate spelling. Perhaps "Celcius" is a better phonetic spelling for an english speaker?
:Intriguing; never ran across that mistake(?) before myself. There are a lot of hits when you Google on it, too. Nothing in the Britannica or my other reference works. Must be another case of bloody American spelling. :-)
:Abbey Diaz Urhixidur/Urhixidur 13:57, 2004 Nov 18
::Enough of the gratuitous America-bashing. Back to your Google
celcius site:.uk 13,800 hits
celcius site:.au 7,450 hits
:: Cingular Ringtones Gene Nygaard/Gene Nygaard 05:51, 16 Feb 2005
Concrete examples
Real-world examples
-20 Typical freezer
0 Freezing point of water
4 Typical refrigerator
22 Room temperature
30 Temperate climate
37 Body temperature
100 Boiling point of water
Original freezing and boiling points
According to some sources (such as http://susning.nu/Celsius for the fortunate few who read Swedish) Anders Celsius first defined 100 degrees as the temperature at which water freezes and zero degrees as the temperature at which water boils (the advantage of this, I suppose, being that outdoor temperatures would always be in the positive range). Before the scale became used to any measurable extent, however, this was changed to what we're used to today.
If this is true, it should perhaps be noted in the article.
:See the third paragraph. Note that the four sides Delisle scale also runs "downward".
:surprisingly have Urhixidur/Urhixidur 13:46, 2004 Nov 18
From my science education the original scale had four elements which should all be mentioned: (1) Freezing temperature of water, defined as 0; (2) Boiling temperature of water, defined as 100; (3) Measurement of (1) and (2) at standard atmospheric pressure, sea level, (4) Linear interpolation between 0 and 100 and extrapolation below 0 and above 100. I think it's important to explicitly state the linear nature of the scale, otherwise it is an unstated assumption.
:memo but User:Jberkes/Jberkes 2004-12-24
Preferred scale. bah.
The sentence
"Fahrenheit remains the preferred scale for everyday temperature measurement, although Celsius or kelvin are used for scientific applications."
should either be changed to reflect that it s NOT the preferred scale in Europe or like, or it should be removed.
Actually I don't know of the Fahrenheit use, other than in US.
:Read it again. This is the sentence you partially quoted:
:''In the United States and Jamaica, Fahrenheit remains the preferred scale for everyday temperature measurement, although Celsius or kelvin are used for scientific applications.''
:logic gates Yath/Yath 23:22, 28 Dec 2004
Conversion Method
Why does the article say:
"a method for converting Celsius to Fahrenheit is to add 40, multiply by 1.8, and subtract 40." etc. (huh??)
...but the sidebar says:
°F = °C × 1.8 + 32
become command Johnq/johnq 09:20, Dec 29, 2004
:Someone having fun with math. It seems irrelevant to me. Both methods are correct, though. many associate Yath/Yath 07:14, 2 Jan 2005
::Just rolled back a delete of that section. It is mathematically identical. The method quoted writes out as:
::°F = (°C + 40)×1.8 - 40
::= °C×1.8 + 40×1.8 - 40 = °C×1.8 + 40×(1.8 - 1) = °C×1.8 + 40×0.8 = °C×1.8 + 32
::QED
::disability rules Urhixidur/Urhixidur 15:28, 2005 Feb 19
:::It is an easier pair of formulas to remember—or at least, easier to reconstruct, once you understand the principle behind it. squad would Gene Nygaard/Gene Nygaard 16:36, 19 Feb 2005
Capitalisation
The article currently seems to spell celsius with a captial letter when refering to the measurement of temperature. I always thought the general rule was that when units are named after a person then when the full name is spelt out there is no capitalisation, however when just the initial of the unit is used then it is in capitals. So for example you would write 10 degrees celsius or 10 °C. The units watt, joule, volt, newton, farad, henry and tesla all seem to follow this rule. Is there an exception for celsius? or is the article wrong? a violation Popsracer/Popsracer 02:15, 25 Jan 2005
:To answer my own question, this has been discussed in sprawls breathtakingly Talk:Kelvin and degrees Celsius seems to be the correct form death her Popsracer/Popsracer 02:22, 25 Jan 2005
* the Mosquito ringtone metric use of centi as a prefix for 1/100th (which would seem to indicate, incorrectly, that a centigrade is 1/100th of a "grade"). (Centigrade pre-dates metric by over 50 years.)
* a whole bunch of European languages having their word for degree be similar to "grade"
Don't have conclusive evidence yet though.
Also, NIST and other standards bodies around the world seem to agree that Celsius should always be capitalized when spelt out.
:The capitalization is a quirk of the English language, where the names of units are not capitalized, but proper adjective identifying particular units are. It's a noun versus adjective thing, not some strange rule only applicable to this unit. Thus degrees Celsius, degrees Rankine, degrees Fahrenheit, but volts, watts, newtons, and becquerels. Note that the K was capitalized before 1967 when the units were called "degrees Kelvin" but "kelvins" are not capitalized. Sabrina Martins Gene Nygaard/Gene Nygaard 05:57, 16 Feb 2005
I do not follow why 'centigrade' is confusing. A degree Celsius is 1/100 of a 'grade' between 0 and 100 degrees. Could someone explain this more clearly?
: If you say "The temperature is 25 centigrade." and your language's word for "degree" sounds a whole lot like "grade", then somebody (that knows the metric system better than the Celsius temperature scale) might interpret this as «The temperature is 25 hundredths of a degree.», which is not what you meant! Nextel ringtones Toby Bartels/Toby Bartels 11:59 1 Jun 2003
Also, I believe that renaming physical quantities to honor a person, such as 'cycles per second' to 'Hertz', is to me an imposition of human ego on the perfection of the Universe. Abbey Diaz David spector/David 21:10 Apr 27, 2003
:I disagree, but it any case it was renamed Celsius and that is its name, and what it is called worldwide. Free ringtones Jtdirl/ÉÍREman 23:48 Apr 27, 2003
:I prefer to say ''100 megahertz'' than ''100 megacycle by second''. Not you? Majo Mills Looxix/Looxix 00:22 Apr 28, 2003
No one has ever said '100 megacycle by second'. The correct usage was '100 megacycles'. (The 'per second' was implied.)
We only prefer "Megahertz" now to "megacycles" because we have become used to it. That is how language naturally changes, through common usage. That does not make one term better than another. "Megacycles" is better than "Megahertz", in my opinion, because it is more descriptive of the physics involved. Mosquito ringtone David spector/David 16:30 Apr 29, 2003
Yes, the USA, and Jamaica, apparently, are the last holdout for Fahrenheit for everyday, non-scientific temperature measurement, but Wikipedia editors should not parlay their annoyance at this situation into non-NPOV prose. As of today, I've toned down the text in this article and in the Sabrina Martins Fahrenheit article so that it reads less like commentary. There is no need to mention that Europeans find it "puzzling" that the USA is one of a "declining number of countries" "still" using this system, phrases which together imply fault. - Nextel ringtones Mjb/mjb 00:47, 10 Apr 2004
Wikipedia could really use a way to let the reader see their own preferred units.
Since ''.org'' is a USA domain... yup, we like our Fahrenheit. The same goes for
any other unit. So how about some Wiki syntax that lets the editor use units
they prefer, while not annoying the reader? Otherwise I propose to fix all this
senseless Celsius stuff. :-)
Spelling: Celsius vs Celcius
Can someone explain the origin of the alternate spelling?
I note that the Oxford English dictionary now uses "Celsius", as do Americans and the man's name is "Celsius."
However, it was always "Celcius" when I was at school and University. I've checked with others and they recall being taught the alternate spelling. Perhaps "Celcius" is a better phonetic spelling for an english speaker?
:Intriguing; never ran across that mistake(?) before myself. There are a lot of hits when you Google on it, too. Nothing in the Britannica or my other reference works. Must be another case of bloody American spelling. :-)
:Abbey Diaz Urhixidur/Urhixidur 13:57, 2004 Nov 18
::Enough of the gratuitous America-bashing. Back to your Google
celcius site:.uk 13,800 hits
celcius site:.au 7,450 hits
:: Cingular Ringtones Gene Nygaard/Gene Nygaard 05:51, 16 Feb 2005
Concrete examples
Real-world examples
-20 Typical freezer
0 Freezing point of water
4 Typical refrigerator
22 Room temperature
30 Temperate climate
37 Body temperature
100 Boiling point of water
Original freezing and boiling points
According to some sources (such as http://susning.nu/Celsius for the fortunate few who read Swedish) Anders Celsius first defined 100 degrees as the temperature at which water freezes and zero degrees as the temperature at which water boils (the advantage of this, I suppose, being that outdoor temperatures would always be in the positive range). Before the scale became used to any measurable extent, however, this was changed to what we're used to today.
If this is true, it should perhaps be noted in the article.
:See the third paragraph. Note that the four sides Delisle scale also runs "downward".
:surprisingly have Urhixidur/Urhixidur 13:46, 2004 Nov 18
From my science education the original scale had four elements which should all be mentioned: (1) Freezing temperature of water, defined as 0; (2) Boiling temperature of water, defined as 100; (3) Measurement of (1) and (2) at standard atmospheric pressure, sea level, (4) Linear interpolation between 0 and 100 and extrapolation below 0 and above 100. I think it's important to explicitly state the linear nature of the scale, otherwise it is an unstated assumption.
:memo but User:Jberkes/Jberkes 2004-12-24
Preferred scale. bah.
The sentence
"Fahrenheit remains the preferred scale for everyday temperature measurement, although Celsius or kelvin are used for scientific applications."
should either be changed to reflect that it s NOT the preferred scale in Europe or like, or it should be removed.
Actually I don't know of the Fahrenheit use, other than in US.
:Read it again. This is the sentence you partially quoted:
:''In the United States and Jamaica, Fahrenheit remains the preferred scale for everyday temperature measurement, although Celsius or kelvin are used for scientific applications.''
:logic gates Yath/Yath 23:22, 28 Dec 2004
Conversion Method
Why does the article say:
"a method for converting Celsius to Fahrenheit is to add 40, multiply by 1.8, and subtract 40." etc. (huh??)
...but the sidebar says:
°F = °C × 1.8 + 32
become command Johnq/johnq 09:20, Dec 29, 2004
:Someone having fun with math. It seems irrelevant to me. Both methods are correct, though. many associate Yath/Yath 07:14, 2 Jan 2005
::Just rolled back a delete of that section. It is mathematically identical. The method quoted writes out as:
::°F = (°C + 40)×1.8 - 40
::= °C×1.8 + 40×1.8 - 40 = °C×1.8 + 40×(1.8 - 1) = °C×1.8 + 40×0.8 = °C×1.8 + 32
::QED
::disability rules Urhixidur/Urhixidur 15:28, 2005 Feb 19
:::It is an easier pair of formulas to remember—or at least, easier to reconstruct, once you understand the principle behind it. squad would Gene Nygaard/Gene Nygaard 16:36, 19 Feb 2005
Capitalisation
The article currently seems to spell celsius with a captial letter when refering to the measurement of temperature. I always thought the general rule was that when units are named after a person then when the full name is spelt out there is no capitalisation, however when just the initial of the unit is used then it is in capitals. So for example you would write 10 degrees celsius or 10 °C. The units watt, joule, volt, newton, farad, henry and tesla all seem to follow this rule. Is there an exception for celsius? or is the article wrong? a violation Popsracer/Popsracer 02:15, 25 Jan 2005
:To answer my own question, this has been discussed in sprawls breathtakingly Talk:Kelvin and degrees Celsius seems to be the correct form death her Popsracer/Popsracer 02:22, 25 Jan 2005
posted at 6:45 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home