United States Customary Units - Units of Temperature

Units of Temperature

Degrees Fahrenheit are used in the United States to measure temperatures in most non-scientific contexts. The Rankine scale of absolute temperature also saw some use in thermodynamics. Scientists worldwide use the kelvin and degree Celsius. Several technical standards are expressed in Fahrenheit temperatures and U.S. medical practitioners often use degrees Fahrenheit for body temperature.

The relationship between the different temperature scales is linear but the scales have different zero points, so conversion is not simply multiplication by a factor: pure water is defined to freeze at 32 °F = 0 °C and boil at 212 °F = 100 °C at 1 atm; the conversion formula is easily shown to be:

or inversely as

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