Celsius Celsius The Celsius scale, also known as the centigrade scale, is a temperature scale used by the International System of Units (SI). As an SI derived unit, it is used by all countries except the United States, the Bahamas, Belize, the Cayman Islands and Liberia. 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 or a unit to indicate a difference between two temperatures or an uncertainty. Before being renamed to honor Anders Celsius in 1948, the unit was
Temperature triple point of water, a point which can be reliably reproduced as a standard experimental phenomenon, at a numerical value of 273.16 kelvins. The Kelvin scale is also called the thermodynamic scale. However, to demonstrate that its numerical value is indeed arbitrary, it is useful to point out that an alternate, less widely used absolute temperature scale exists called the Rankine scale, made to be aligned with the Fahrenheit scale as Kelvin is with Celsius. The thermodynamic definition of temperature is due to Kelvin. It is framed in terms of an idealized device called a Carnot engine, imagined to define