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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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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Anonymous 0 Comments

Celsius and Fahrenheit have their zero points in different places. That means you can’t convert between them by multiplying by some number, as you can do with, say, pounds and kilos. The zeros for the two scales are 32°C apart and a degree Celsius is 9/5 of a degree Fahrenheit, so that gives the formula for conversion from Celsius to Fahrenheit as °F = (9/5)°C + 32. So a temperature of 1°C is 33.8°F.

But if you are talking about a *change* of 1°C, then there is a fixed conversion factor: the 9/5 in the formula above. A change of 1°C is a change of 1.8°F.

As for why the zeros of the two temperature scales are different, that’s down to history. Celsius set 0 and 100 degrees at the freezing and boiling points of water, respectively, while Fahrenheit set 0 at the considerably lower freezing point of salt water, the coldest temperature he could make, and 96 at body heat (which he got a little off). That range is easier to divide up into equal degrees than a range of 0 to 100.

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