In the summer months there's one thing that nearly everyone has on there mind at one time or another: the temperature. Living in Oklahoma, it's not uncommon for one to experience temperatuures in the high 90's and low 100's of fahrenheit degrees. But what led me to write today's entry wasn't the weather. I was actually verifying the correct spelling of the word fahrenheit for use on my profile section when I stumbled on some interesting information on the origins of the scale and it's founder, Gabriel Fahrenheit. I know this is kind of nerdy for a blog entry, but I found it very interesting. If you don't much care for silly trivia, scientific facts, or expanding and enhancing  that grey mass inside of the large spherical object resting on your shoulders, wait for a later entry.

So here are the facts:

~Fahrenheit established the zero (0 °F) and 100 °F points on his scale by recording the lowest outdoor temperatures he could measure, and his own body temperature.

~Fahrenheit fixed his own body temperature as 100 °F (normal body temperature is closer to 98.6 °F, suggesting that Fahrenheit was suffering a fever when he conducted his experiments or that his thermometer was inaccurate), and divided his original scale into twelve divisions; later dividing each of these into 8 equal subdivisions produced a scale of 96 degrees.

~Some say that Fahrenheit himself was a Freemason. In Freemasonry, there are 32 degrees of enlightenment, 32 being the highest. The use of the 'degree' as well is said to have been derived from the degrees of masonry.

~Another theory states that Fahrenheit based 0 degrees on an estimate of the temperature someone would freeze to death, and 100 degrees on the temperature someone would die of heat exhaustion from, therefore making 0 to 100 the livable range for human beings.

Okay, I'm done with my nerdy escapade.

Lauren

Currently reading:
The Golem's Eye (The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 2)
By Jonathan Stroud