Temperature

Description

A measurement of the hotness or coldness of an object or of the environment. The International Standard (SI) units for temperature are degrees Celsius. The Celsius scale is set as a linear function of the thermometric properties of pure water. The freezing point of Water at 1 atm (sea level) is designated 0C while the boiling point of water is designated as 100 C. The one hundred degree differential gave the scale its first name of centigrade. The Celsius scale related to the archaic Fahrenheit scale by the equation: T (C) = 0.555 [T (F) -32 ] .

Synonyms and Related Terms

temperatur (Dan., Sven.); Temperatur (Deut.); temperatura (Esp.); température (Fr.); temperatura (It.)

Resources and Citations

• Richard S. Lewis, Hawley's Condensed Chemical Dictionary, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 10th ed., 1993

• ASTM, Standard Terminology Relating to Conditioning, Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Section 6, Paints, Related Coatings and Aromatics, ASTM, E41, 23-24, Sep-92

• Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperature (Accessed Sept. 28, 2005)

• Random House, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Grammercy Book, New York, 1997

• The American Heritage Dictionary or Encarta, via Microsoft Bookshelf 98, Microsoft Corp., 1998