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
Negative temperature energy states than in the lower ones. The system can then be characterised as having a negative temperature. A substance with a negative temperature is not colder than absolute zero, but rather it is hotter than infinite temperature. As Kittel and Kroemer (p. 462) put it, "The temperature scale from cold to hot runs: The corresponding inverse temperature scale, for the quantity "β" = 1/"kT" (where "k" is Boltzmann's constant), runs continuously from low energy to high as +∞, … , 0, …, −∞. Because it avoids the abrupt jump from +∞ to −∞, β is considered more natural than