Physics and Chemistry

Temperature, Measurement, and Methodology

What was unusual about the original Celsius temperature scale?

In 1742, the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius (1701–1744) set the freezing point of water at 100°C and the boiling point of water at 0°C. It was Carolus Linnaeus (1707–1778) who reversed the scale, but a later textbook attributed the modified scale to Celsius and the name has remained.