If 100°C is equal to 212°F then why is 1°C not equal to (212/100) or 2.12°F but instead equal to 33.8°F?
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Most units you are familiar with have an obvious and universal zero point. For example, for mass the zero point is “weighs nothing”, and it is zero pounds, zero kilograms, zero ounces etc. no matter what unit you use. And that common zero is the reason why the conversion between, say, inches and centimeters is a simple proportionality. 1in = 2.54cm, 100in = 254cm and so on.
The zero point of temperature isn’t that obvious, and in the time of Fahrenheit, people didn’t even know for sure that such a point exists. That’s why the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales both use (different) arbitrary points, which could be reliably reproduced, as zeros.
There are temperature scales that use absolute zero as their zero point; Kelvin and Rankine, and there, the conversion again works just like you’d expect.
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