Columnist is not a Commie

The Fahrenheit temperature scale always seemed a bit arbitrary. Why does water freeze at 32 degrees? And what exactly does zero represent? According to many sources the Fahrenheit scale was defined by setting zero degrees equal to the temperature of an ice, salt, and water mixture and 100 degrees being roughly equal to human body temperature. But that isn’t true . The real story is much more interesting, and scientific... August 14th 1701 was almost certainly the worst day in the life of fifteen year-old Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit . On that day both of his parents died suddenly from mushroom poisoning. He was sent from Poland, where he lived, to Amsterdam to become an apprentice bookkeeper. But Fahrenheit couldn’t stand his apprenticeship and ran away so many times his employers put out a warrant for his arrest. Traveling from city to city around Europe, he became fascinated with scientific instruments and in particular thermometers. In 1708, possibly se...