How to Convert Celsius and Fahrenheit

How to Convert Celsius and Fahrenheit Most countries around the world measure their weather and temperatures using the relatively simple Celsius scale. But the United States is one of the five remaining countries that use the Fahrenheit scale, so its important for Americans to know how to convert one to the other, especially when traveling or doing scientific research.   Celsius Fahrenheit Conversion Formulas To convert a temperature from Celsius to Fahrenheit, you will take the temperature in Celsius and multiply it by 1.8, then add 32 degrees. So if your Celsius temperature is 50 degrees, the corresponding Fahrenheit temperature is 122 degrees: (50 degrees Celsius x 1.8) 32 122 degrees Fahrenheit If you need to convert a temperature in Fahrenheit, simply reverse the process: subtract 32, then divide by 1.8. So 122 degrees Fahrenheit is still 50 degrees Celsius: (122 degrees Fahrenheit - 32)  Ãƒ · 1.8 50 degrees Celsius Its Not Just About Conversions While its useful to know how to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit and vice versa, its also important to understand the differences between the two scales. First, its important to clarify the difference between Celsius and centigrade, since theyre not quite the same thing.   A third international unit of temperature measurement, Kelvin, is widely used in scientific applications. But for everyday and household temperatures (and your local meteorologists weather report), youre most likely to use Fahrenheit in the U.S. and Celsius most other places around the world.   Difference Between Celsius and Centigrade Some people use the terms Celsius and centigrade interchangeably, but its not completely accurate to do so.  The Celsius scale is a type of centigrade scale, meaning its endpoints are separated by 100 degrees. The word is derived from the Latin words centum, which means hundred, and gradus, which means scales or steps. Put simply, Celsius is the proper name of a centigrade scale of temperature. As devised by Swedish astronomy professor Anders Celsius, this particular  centigrade scale had  100  degrees occurring at the freezing point of water and 0 degrees as waters boiling point. This was reversed after his death by fellow Swede and botanist Carlous Linneaus to be more easily understood. The centigrade scale Celsius created was renamed for him after it was redefined to be more precise  by the General Conference of Weights and Measures in the 1950s.   There is one point on both scales where Fahrenheit and Celsius temperatures match, which is minus 40 degrees Celsius and minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit.   Invention of the Fahrenheit Temperature Scale The first mercury thermometer was invented by German scientist Daniel Fahrenheit in 1714. His scale divides the freezing and boiling points of water into 180 degrees, with 32 degrees as waters freezing point, and 212 as its boiling point. On Fahrenheits scale, 0 degrees was determined as the temperature of a brine solution. He based the scale on the average temperature of the human body, which he originally calculated at 100 degrees (its since been adjusted to 98.6 degrees). Fahrenheit was the standard unit of measure in most countries until the 1960s and 1970s when it was replaced with the Celsius scale in a widespread conversion to the more useful metric system. But in addition to the U.S. and its territories,  Fahrenheit is still used in  the Bahamas, Belize, and the Cayman Islands for most temperature measurements.

Synonymy Definition and Examples

Synonymy Definition and Examples Pronunciation: si-NON-eh-mi Definition: The semantic qualities or sense relations that exist between words (lexemes) with closely related meanings (i.e., synonyms). Plural: synonymies. Contrast with antonymy. Synonymy may also refer to the study of synonyms or to a list of synonyms. In the words of Dagmar Divjak, near-synonymy (the relationship between different lexemes that express similar meanings) is a fundamental phenomenon that influences the structure of our lexical knowledge (Structuring the Lexicon, 2010). Examples and Observations The phenomenon of synonymy is a central interest for both the semanticist and the language learner. For the former, synonymy is an important member of the theoretical set of logical relations existing in language. For the latter, there is a good deal of evidence to suggest that vocabulary is often best acquired by analogy, in other words, remembered as being similar in meaning to previously acquired forms... In addition, what we might term definition through synonym is a central feature of most dictionary organisation (Ilson 1991: 294-6). For motives of stylistic variation, non-native learners and translators have a pressing need to find lexical alternatives to express a particular concept, especially in writing. Harvey Yuill (1994) found that searches for synonyms accounted for over 10 percent of dictionary consultations when learners were engaged in a writing task. However, given the rarity of absolute synonymy, learners also need to know which of the particular synonyms given by dictionaries and thesauruses is the most suitable for any given context.(Alan Partington, Patterns and Meanings: Using Corpora for English Language Research and Teaching. John Benjamins, 1998)​ The Productivity of Synonymy - The productivity of synonymy is clearly observable. If we invent a new word that represents (to some extent) the same thing that an existing word in the language represents, then the new word is automatically a synonym of the older word. For example, every time a new slang term meaning automobile is invented, a synonym relation is predicted for the new slang term (say, ride) and the standard and slang terms that already exist (car, auto, wheels, etc.). Ride does not need to be inducted as a member of the synonym set- no one has to say ride means the same thing as car in order for the synonym relation to be understood. All that must happen is that ride must be used and understood to mean the same thing as car- as in My new ride is a Honda.(M. Lynne Murphy, Semantic Relations and the Lexicon. Cambridge University Press, 2003)Synonymy, Near-Synonymy, and Degrees of Formality - It should be noted that the idea of sameness of meaning used in discussing synon ymy is not necessarily total sameness. There are many occasions when one word is appropriate in a sentence, but its synonym would be odd. For example, whereas the word answer fits in this sentence: Cathy had only one answer correct on the test, its near-synonym, reply, would sound odd. Synonymous forms may also differ in terms of formality. The sentence My father purchased a large automobile seems much more serious than the following casual version, with four synonymous replacements: My dad bought a big car.(George Yule, The Study of Language, 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, 1996) Synonymy and Polysemy - What defines synonymy is precisely the possibility of substituting words in given contexts without altering the objective and affective meaning. Inversely, the irreducible character of the phenomenon of synonymy is confirmed by the possibility of providing synonyms for the various acceptations of a single word (this is the commutative test of polysemy itself): the word review is the synonym sometimes of parade, sometimes of magazine. In every case a community of meaning is at the bottom of synonymy. Because it is an irreducible phenomenon, synonymy can play two roles at once: offering a stylistic resource for fine distinctions (peak instead of summit, minuscule for minute, etc.), and indeed for emphasis, for reinforcement, for piling-on, as in the mannerist style of [French poet Charles] Pà ©guy; and providing a test of commutativity for polysemy. Identity and difference can be accentuated in turn in the notion of partial semantic identity.So polysemy is defi ned initially as the inverse of synonymy, as [French philologist Michel] Brà ©al was the first to observe: now not several names for one sense (synonymy), but several senses for one name (polysemy).(Paul Ricoeur, The Rule of Metaphor: Multi-Disciplinary Studies in the Creation of Meaning in Language, 1975; translated by Robert Czerny. University of Toronto Press, 1977)