“Fahrenheit” generally refers to the temperature scale created by the Polish-German scientist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit in the early 18th century. Born in 1686, Fahrenheit was an instrument maker and physicist who developed both the mercury thermometer and the temperature scale that bears his name. He introduced this scale in 1724, setting 32°F as the freezing point of water and 212°F as the boiling point at standard atmospheric pressure.
Fahrenheit’s scale, while now largely replaced by Celsius in most parts of the world, remains popular in the United States for daily weather forecasts and general temperature measurement.
