Anders Celsius
Content
Anders Celsius, born in Uppsala, was one of a large number of scientists
(all related) originating from Ovanåker in the province of Hälsingland. The
family name is a latinised version of the name of the vicarage (Högen). His
grandfathers were both professors in Uppsala: Magnus Celsius the
mathematician and Anders Spole the astronomer. His father, Nils Celsius,
was also professor in astronomy. Celsius, who was said to have been very
talented in mathematics from an early age, was appointed professor of
astronomy in 1730. He began his "grand tour", lasting for four years, in 1732,
and he visited during these years almost all the notable european
observatories of the day, where he worked with many of the leading 18th
century astronomers. Soon after his return to Uppsala he participated in the
French astronomer Maupertuis' famous expedition 1736 to Torneå, in the
most northern part of Sweden. ("The Lapland expedition.") The aim of the
expedition was to measure the length of a degree along a meridian, close to the
pole, and compare the result with a similar expedition to Peru (today
Ecuador) near the equator. The expeditons confirmed Newton's belief that
the shape of the earth is an ellipsoid flattened at the poles. Celsius'
participation in this expedition made him famous and was important in his
efforts to interest the Swedish authorities in donating the resources
necessary to build a modern observatory in Uppsala. He was successful, and
the Celsius observatory was ready in 1741, equipped with instruments
purchased during his long voyage abroad, comprising the most modern
instrumental technology at that time. In those days geographical
measurements, metereological observations and other things, not considered as
astronomy today, were included in the work of an astronomy professor. He
carried out many geographical measurements for the Swedish General map,
and was also one of the first to note that the land of the nordic countries is
slowly rising above sea level, a process which has been going on since the
melting of the ice from the latest ice age. He believed though, that it was the
water that was evaporating.
For his metereological observations he constructed his world famous
Celsius thermometer, with 0 for the boiling point of water and 100 for the
freezing point. After his death in 1744 the scale was reversed to its present
form. Together with his assistant Olof Hjorter he also was the first to
realize that the aurora phenomenon has magnetic causes through observing
the inclination of a compass-needle and finding that the larger deviations
correlated with stronger aurora activity. In astronomy he made observations
of eclipses and various astronomical objects. He published catalogues of
carefully determined magnitudes for a total of 300 stars using his own
photometric system (mean error=0.4 mag). The idea of his system consists
of using identical transparent glass plates and viewing the ray of light from a
star through them. He could then compare the magnitudes of the stars by the
number of glass plates needed to extinguishe the light. (The star Sirius, the
brightest star in the sky, needed 25 of his plates to be extinguished.) Celsius
published most of his work in the publications of the Royal Society of
Sciences in Uppsala, which is the oldest Swedish scientific society founded
in 1710, where Celsius was the secretary 1725-1744, and in the publications
of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, founded in 1739. He also
presided at about twenty dissertations in astronomy where, as was the
general rule in those days, he was the main author. His popular book
Arithmetics for the Swedish Youth was typical of the spirit of his period,
the Enlightenment. Celsius was a very active supporter for introducing the
Gregorian calender in Sweden but he wasn't successful until 1753, almost ten
years after his death, when the Julian calender was abandoned by dropping
11 days. Anders Celsius died of tuberculosis in april 1744, only 42 years
old. His grave is next to his grandfather's, Magnus Celsius, in the church at
Gamla Uppsala, about 5 km north of central Uppsala. In 1742, Swedish
astronomer Anders Celsius (1701–1744) created a temperature scale which
was the reverse of the scale now known by the name "Celsius": 0
represented the boiling point of water, while 100 represented the freezing
point of water. In his paper Observations of two persistent degrees on a
thermometer, he recounted his experiments showing that the melting point of
ice is essentially unaffected by pressure.Celsius, also known as centigrade is
a scale and unit of measurement for temperature. It is named after the
Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius (1701–1744), who developed a similar
temperature scale. The degree Celsius (°C) can refer to a specific
temperature on the Celsius scale as well as a unit to indicate a temperature
interval, a difference between two temperatures or an uncertainty. The unit
was known until 1948 as "centigrade" from the Latin centum translated as
100 and gradus translated as "steps"Throughout the world, except in the
United States, Belize, Palau and the United States territories of Puerto
Rico, Guam and the US Virgin Islands the Celsius temperature scale is
used for practically all purposes.[citation needed] The only exceptions are
some specialist fields (e.g. low-temperature physics, astrophysics, light
temperature in photography) where the closely related Kelvin scale dominates
instead.Most of the entire scientific field and many engineering fields use the
Celsius scale, and the metric system in general. However, most Americans
remain more accustomed to the Fahrenheit scale, which is the scale that US
broadcasters and journalists use in weather forecasting, although the
equivalent in Celsius is sometimes provided alongside.
(all related) originating from Ovanåker in the province of Hälsingland. The
family name is a latinised version of the name of the vicarage (Högen). His
grandfathers were both professors in Uppsala: Magnus Celsius the
mathematician and Anders Spole the astronomer. His father, Nils Celsius,
was also professor in astronomy. Celsius, who was said to have been very
talented in mathematics from an early age, was appointed professor of
astronomy in 1730. He began his "grand tour", lasting for four years, in 1732,
and he visited during these years almost all the notable european
observatories of the day, where he worked with many of the leading 18th
century astronomers. Soon after his return to Uppsala he participated in the
French astronomer Maupertuis' famous expedition 1736 to Torneå, in the
most northern part of Sweden. ("The Lapland expedition.") The aim of the
expedition was to measure the length of a degree along a meridian, close to the
pole, and compare the result with a similar expedition to Peru (today
Ecuador) near the equator. The expeditons confirmed Newton's belief that
the shape of the earth is an ellipsoid flattened at the poles. Celsius'
participation in this expedition made him famous and was important in his
efforts to interest the Swedish authorities in donating the resources
necessary to build a modern observatory in Uppsala. He was successful, and
the Celsius observatory was ready in 1741, equipped with instruments
purchased during his long voyage abroad, comprising the most modern
instrumental technology at that time. In those days geographical
measurements, metereological observations and other things, not considered as
astronomy today, were included in the work of an astronomy professor. He
carried out many geographical measurements for the Swedish General map,
and was also one of the first to note that the land of the nordic countries is
slowly rising above sea level, a process which has been going on since the
melting of the ice from the latest ice age. He believed though, that it was the
water that was evaporating.
For his metereological observations he constructed his world famous
Celsius thermometer, with 0 for the boiling point of water and 100 for the
freezing point. After his death in 1744 the scale was reversed to its present
form. Together with his assistant Olof Hjorter he also was the first to
realize that the aurora phenomenon has magnetic causes through observing
the inclination of a compass-needle and finding that the larger deviations
correlated with stronger aurora activity. In astronomy he made observations
of eclipses and various astronomical objects. He published catalogues of
carefully determined magnitudes for a total of 300 stars using his own
photometric system (mean error=0.4 mag). The idea of his system consists
of using identical transparent glass plates and viewing the ray of light from a
star through them. He could then compare the magnitudes of the stars by the
number of glass plates needed to extinguishe the light. (The star Sirius, the
brightest star in the sky, needed 25 of his plates to be extinguished.) Celsius
published most of his work in the publications of the Royal Society of
Sciences in Uppsala, which is the oldest Swedish scientific society founded
in 1710, where Celsius was the secretary 1725-1744, and in the publications
of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, founded in 1739. He also
presided at about twenty dissertations in astronomy where, as was the
general rule in those days, he was the main author. His popular book
Arithmetics for the Swedish Youth was typical of the spirit of his period,
the Enlightenment. Celsius was a very active supporter for introducing the
Gregorian calender in Sweden but he wasn't successful until 1753, almost ten
years after his death, when the Julian calender was abandoned by dropping
11 days. Anders Celsius died of tuberculosis in april 1744, only 42 years
old. His grave is next to his grandfather's, Magnus Celsius, in the church at
Gamla Uppsala, about 5 km north of central Uppsala. In 1742, Swedish
astronomer Anders Celsius (1701–1744) created a temperature scale which
was the reverse of the scale now known by the name "Celsius": 0
represented the boiling point of water, while 100 represented the freezing
point of water. In his paper Observations of two persistent degrees on a
thermometer, he recounted his experiments showing that the melting point of
ice is essentially unaffected by pressure.Celsius, also known as centigrade is
a scale and unit of measurement for temperature. It is named after the
Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius (1701–1744), who developed a similar
temperature scale. The degree Celsius (°C) can refer to a specific
temperature on the Celsius scale as well as a unit to indicate a temperature
interval, a difference between two temperatures or an uncertainty. The unit
was known until 1948 as "centigrade" from the Latin centum translated as
100 and gradus translated as "steps"Throughout the world, except in the
United States, Belize, Palau and the United States territories of Puerto
Rico, Guam and the US Virgin Islands the Celsius temperature scale is
used for practically all purposes.[citation needed] The only exceptions are
some specialist fields (e.g. low-temperature physics, astrophysics, light
temperature in photography) where the closely related Kelvin scale dominates
instead.Most of the entire scientific field and many engineering fields use the
Celsius scale, and the metric system in general. However, most Americans
remain more accustomed to the Fahrenheit scale, which is the scale that US
broadcasters and journalists use in weather forecasting, although the
equivalent in Celsius is sometimes provided alongside.
