Wirt Atmar wrote:
............................

>The year was divided into 360 (6 x 60) days -- and a circle was divided into
>360 equal arcs (and 5000 years later, because the opposite side of the circle
>remained 180 degrees away, Fahrenheit defined the distance in temperature
>between water's freezing and boiling as 180 degrees; Celsius used the more
>"modern" Egyptian system and made it 100 degrees).

This is not quite what I learnt in school.  I believe that Fahrenheit
defined a scale with 100 degrees, the zero being the lowest temperature
that he could obtain with a mixture of ice and water, and the 100 being the
average temparature of the human body (he must have been a hot-blooded
individual!).  And then, of course, there was Reamur, that I haven't heard
about recently.

John D. Alleyn-Day
Alleyn-Day International
408-286-6421   408-286-6474 (Fax)
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