Metric vs. other measurement systems - chart

[mklotz]

Was "Rankine" so ashamed he ran away before the shutter snapped?

I'll never forgive old Fahrenheit.

If you're a scientist and you are defining a standard, you should attempt to make the standard something that can be accurately reproduced locally. Now, in temperature the two widely available points are freezing and boiling water.

So what does the dummy, Danny F, do? He uses a mix of water, ice, and a salt, to set the zero point. (Now the guy trying to calibrate his homemade thermometer has to determine type of salt, mixture proportions, etc..- all sources of error.) Then he sets an upper point as human body temperature! (Yeah, now there's a nice stable temperature.) Finally, he defines the freezing point of water as 32. With this wonky arrangement, the boiling point comes in at 212.

I won't forgive Fahrenheit but I'd willingly crucify Rankine.

It's 1859 and the concept of absolute zero exists. In thermodynamics, it makes sense to define temperatures relative to a zero set at that point. Baron Kelvin, also a Scot, did that and logically used the Celsius degree (based on freezing water zero and boiling 100) in his scale. Rankine, on the other hand, used the Farenheit degree thus propagating the use of that abomination.