Talk:Rømer scale

Article Name

The Wikipedia articles for all of the other scales are simply titled "Fahrenheit," "Celsius," etc. This is the only article with "scale" following it. Is there a reason for this seeming inconsistency, or should it simply be changed to match the others? --— Poga — 06:29, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Delisle · Leiden · Newton · Rankine · Réaumur · also have scale. Jɪmp 06:43, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Mistake

There is a mistake in the last paragraph: Fahrenheit increased the number of divisions by a factor 4 and not 8, and then adjusted the values. (see in page Fahrenheit, and one can simply verify that the Fahrenheit temperature for freezing water is 32°F (4 times 7.5 equal 30, when 8 times 7,5 equal 60))

Still a Mistake

I've never used Wikipedia for giving feedback so forgive me if this is the wrong way to do it (and also tell me how to do it properly). Anyway, I think there is still a mistake, the whole thing about the factor is that it's a factor of *divisions*, meaning how many divisions you divide the temperature between freezing 0 C and boiling 100 C. Fahrenheit divides it to 180 degrees, Celsius 100 degrees, and Rømer 60 degrees. So should it not be by factor of 3 (not 4), that is, 3 x 60 = 180 degrees? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.94.59.110 (talk) 01:45, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

I may be misinterpreting your wording, but 60°Rø=100°C≠180°F; 60°Rø=100°C=212°F; 50.667°Rø=82.222°C=180°F _{--Fewmenleft (talk) 05:21, 24 May 2009 (UTC)}

This seems to be an oversimplification on the part of the source (a medical book, not a physics book). The real history seems to be somewhat more complicated than that, I'll see if I can't improve it with a better source. However, the factor is greater than three because the zero of the Rømer scale does not correspond to the zero of the Fahrenheit scale. SpinningSpark 17:20, 22 October 2013 (UTC)

Rømer scale = ... What Celsius?

In the article, it says -

"Thus the unit of this scale, a Rømer degree, is 40/21 of a kelvin (or of a Celsius degree)."

However, in the conversion table, it says -

1 °Rø = 21⁄40 °C

So ... Which is it? Again, this may be an misinterpretation on my part, but it looks a bit confusing. _{--Fewmenleft (talk) 05:41, 24 May 2009 (UTC)}

The table has never said that, it says 1 °Rø = 40/21 °C. What it does say is that to convert Celsius to Rømer [°Rø] = [°C] × 21⁄40 + 7.5 which is also correct. That does not mean 1 deg Rø = 21/40 deg C. It means that 1 deg Rø will result if [deg C] = 40/21, which it will after multiplying by 21/40. SpinningSpark 17:05, 22 October 2013 (UTC)

Fiduciary?

The "Importance" section includes the text "The idea of using two fiduciary points..." (italics mine). I am unfamiliar with this use of fiduciary and can't find a definition that makes sense of it here. I would change the word if I knew what it was meant to mean! Claudia (talk) 20:31, 3 November 2017 (UTC)

I suppose it means "trusted point" in the sense that mp of ice can be trusted to always occur at the same temperature whereas lowest winter temperature cannot. A gbboks search turns up a few uses of the term in science (both physics and medicine) to describe a reliably repeatable reference point of some kind, but I didn't find any in connection with a temperature scale. SpinningSpark 09:04, 4 November 2017 (UTC)

@KumoAcademic: I just reverted your change of fiduciary to fixed. This does not really have the same meaning. For instance, the earlier practice of calibrating thermometers between the highest and lowest temperatures of the year could be described as "fixed points" since the process can be repeated, but they are not trusted points in a thermodynamic sense. By the way, I don't think the word is quite as rare as you think – this ngram shows that in some recent years it has been more common than trusted. SpinningSpark 17:58, 26 January 2022 (UTC)

One further point, according to Wiktionary, fiduciary is an error (for this meaning) and it should be fiducial. Not entirely convinced they are right on that because I'm seeing "fiduciary points" in a lot of textbooks, but fiducial points is certainly much more common than fiduciary points. SpinningSpark 18:08, 26 January 2022 (UTC)

Primary source for basis of zero as the reference point of brine?

I can find no source that says Rømer used the freezing point of brine as a reference for zero. Nysus (talk) 13:34, 26 November 2023 (UTC)

Degree measurements

The 'Degree measurements' section in its current form doesn't make sense, as it refers to 'these two points' without establishing what those points are. 1.40.150.55 (talk) 21:29, 9 December 2023 (UTC)