I’ve heard this too. It also allows for easily making your own thermometer, since you can just divide by 2 until you get all the way down to degrees.
Comment on xkcd #3001: Temperature Scales
someguy3@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I once read that circular thermometers were a thing and that’s why fahrenheit has 180° between freezing and boiling.
TheTetrapod@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
ikidd@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I think a degree F was 1/10,000 of the volume of mercury he happened to use in his first thermometer. The 180 was probably a coincidence because bimetal spring thermometers came along later.