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Q:
why is that the waters melting point is 0 and the boiling point is 100? why it couldnt be any other number?
- kimberly (age 14)
Manila
A:
The freezing and boiling temperatures of water are a matter of definition. They can be anything you want them to be. You can invent your own temperature scale if you want to.
There are several temperature scales in use: Celsius, (the one you are referring to), Fahrenheit (commonly used in the USA), Roemer, Kelvin (much used in scientific work), etc. They are all linear, so it is easy to convert from one to the other by a simple arithmetic rule. For example T(Farenheit) = T(Celsius)*9/5 + 32.
Here are some web sites that give more information on the subject.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celsiushttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FahrenheitLeeH
(published on 01/04/2008)
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