CELSIUS - 4 reference results
Celsius, Anders, 1701-44, Swedish astronomer. While professor of astronomy at the Univ. of Uppsala (1730-44), he traveled through Germany, France, and Italy, visiting great observatories. At Nuremberg in 1733 he published a collection of 316 observations of the aurora borealis made by himself and others. While in Paris he was instrumental in bringing about an expedition (of which he became a member) organized by the French Academy for the measurement of an arc of the meridian in Lapland (1736). He supervised the building of an observatory at Uppsala in 1740 and became its director; while there he pioneered in the measuring of the magnitude of stars, using photometric methods. In 1742 he invented the centigrade (or Celsius) thermometer. His works include De observationibus pro figura telluris determinanda (1738).
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Celsius temperature scale, temperature scale according to which the temperature difference between the reference temperatures of the freezing and boiling points of water is divided into 100 degrees. The freezing point is taken as 0 degrees Celsius and the boiling point as 100 degrees Celsius. The Celsius scale is widely known as the centigrade scale because it is divided into 100 degrees. It is named for the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius, who established the scale in 1742. William Thomson Kelvin used it as the basis of his absolute temperature scale, now known as the Kelvin temperature scale, in 1848 (see also absolute zero). Temperatures on the Celsius scale can be converted to equivalent temperatures on the Fahrenheit temperature scale by multiplying the Celsius temperature by 9/5 and adding 32° to the result, according to the formula 9C/5+32=F.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press
Licensed from Columbia University Press
(born Nov. 27, 1701, Uppsala, Swed.—died April 25, 1744, Uppsala) Swedish astronomer. He taught at the University of Uppsala from 1730 to his death. In 1733 he published a collection of 316 observations of the aurora borealis. In 1744 he built the Uppsala Observatory. He is best known for his invention of the Celsius (often called centigrade) thermometer scale (1742), which set the freezing point of water at 0° and the boiling point of water at 100°.
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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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