New Delhi: You might think that you know the name of Anders Celsius. Well, you definitely know his surname, don’t you? He was a Swedish physicist, astronomer and mathematician who served as the astronomy professor at the Uppsala University from 1730 to 1744. He visited several notable observatories in Germany, Italy and France from 1732 to 1735. In 1741, he founded the Uppsala Astronomical Observatory.
Anders Celsius and the surname
Born on November 27, 1701, Anders Celsius was the son of Nils Celsius, an astronomy professor. The name Celsius is a latinization of the name of the estate of Anders’ family (Latin celsus means ‘mound’).
A talented mathematician from an early age, Celsius decided to form a career in science. He studied at Uppsala University and his father taught there. Later, he became an astronomy professor there.
The works of Anders Celsius
In 1730, Celsius published a book in which he determined the distance between the Sun and the Earth. He studied auroral phenomena and was the first to suggest that there is a connection between Earth’s changes in the magnetic field and the aurora borealis.
In the early 1730s, he travelled extensively and visited many places including Italy, France and Germany and visited most of the major European observatories. In 1738, he published another book where he determined the shape of the Earth. In 1741, he established the Uppsala Astronomical Observatory and it had instruments which he purchased during his years of travel, including the most modern instrumental technology. In 1725, Uppsala’s Royal Society of Sciences made him secretary and he served there till his death from tuberculosis in 1744.
The Legacy of Anders Celsius: The Celsius Temperature Scale
At that time, Fahrenheit’s scale was used for measurement. Despite having whimsical foundations, the scale was accepted swiftly. To measure temperatures, it was the first practical tool and its inventor Daniel Fahrenheit also invented precise mercury thermometer, a monumental achievement in the history of science.
However, in 1742, Celsius changed it. In a paper to Uppsala’s Royal Society of Sciences that year, he proposed the Celsius temperature scale. His thermometer was calibrated with a value of 0 for water’s boiling point and 100 for the freezing point. In 1745, a year after the death of Celsius, Carl Linnaeus reversed the scale for more practical measurement. In the reversed measurement, 0 heralds frost and 100 marks the point of boiling water. The scale was simple and it became popular in no time. In subsequent years, the Celsius replaced Fahrenheit in science and much of Europe and today, it is used almost all over the world to measure temperature.
Anders Celsius is best known for the Celsius temperature scale. His work extended to determining the Earth’s shape, studying auroras, and establishing the Uppsala Astronomical Observatory. knowledge Knowledge News, Photos and Videos on General Knowledge
