International Temperature Scale of 1990 International Temperature Scale of 1990 The International Temperature Scale of 1990 (ITS–90) published by the Consultative Committee for Thermometry (CCT) of the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM) is an equipment calibration standard for making measurements on the Kelvin and Celsius temperature scales. ITS–90 is an approximation of the thermodynamic temperature scale that facilitates the comparability and compatibility of temperature measurements internationally. It specifies fourteen calibration points ranging from 0.65±0 K to ±0 K (−272.50±0 °C to ±0 °C) and is subdivided into multiple temperature ranges which overlap in some instances. ITS–90 is the latest (as of 2014) of
Absolute zero if so, where the zero must be placed, was first addressed by the French physicist Guillaume Amontons in 1702, in connection with his improvements in the air-thermometer. His instrument indicated temperatures by the height at which a certain mass of air sustained a column of mercury—the volume, or "spring" of the air varying with temperature. Amontons therefore argued that the zero of his thermometer would be that temperature at which the spring of the air was reduced to nothing. He used a scale that marked the boiling-point of water at +73 and the melting-point of ice at +, so that