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RE: The Curious Case For Base 12 (Why Dozens Are Easier For Everyday Maths Than Tens)
I recently researched this topic when working on a post for a series on temperature measurements. Basically Celsius referenced 0 for freezing, and 100 for the boiling point of water. While Fahrenheit used different points of the coldest solution in his lab for 0, and his body temperature for 96. At first I wondered why 96, and it turns out he choose 96 because it was divisible by 12 for the reasons mentioned above.
Great post! --3D
That's actually quite interesting, I didn't know that! To make this coincidence a bit more significant, I actually have an unfinished post about temperature in the can that I haven't published yet :)
For accuracy, I should mention In 1742, Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius referenced the freezing point of water as a 100 degree point, and the boiling point of water as the 0 degree point. In 1744, coincident with Celsius death, the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) reversed Celsius's scale such that 0 was the reference for freezing and 100 for boiling.
The research on Fahrenheit and base 12 matched the point in your article, but I realized I had Celsius backwards, or maybe he did :-)
Enjoyed your post, and as mentioned it was in phase with my research. I look forward to more! Maybe you can get the post on temperature published. It will be interesting to see what areas you focus on.
Yep, Celsius started with an inverted scale where the colder it was the higher the number for the temperature was and I think somebody else started reversing it in the direction we are used to today.