Eli5 Why 80 degree Celsius is not four times as hot as 20 degrees celsius?

Question

Eli5 Why 80 degree Celsius is not four times as hot as 20 degrees celsius?

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Answer 1

Celsius scale (and Farenheit, btw) does not measure absolute temperature. Both scales use an arbitrary point as zero. Kelvin (and Rankine) take the zero as the state of the lowest energy possible, therefore, it makes no sense to speak of negative temperatures. With this scales, you actually have that 20K is twice as hot as 10K. Given the example you’ve chosen, we’d have 80ºC=353K and 20ºC=293K, so their quotient would be roughly 1.21, just 21% hotter