Was Temperature Invented or Discovered?

Are physical properties such as temperature invented or discovered?

Temperature itself was not invented. Even though there were no ways to calculate temperature during the earliest days of our planet, every area has, and always had a specific temperature. However, the methods we use to quantify temperature such as thermometers and scales were invented for our convenience.

Even though temperature was always there, it wasn’t until 1593 when Galileo invented the first rudimentary water thermometer to become the first person to put a number on temperature. In 1709, a “German physicist named Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit invented the first alcohol thermometer and the first mercury thermometer in 1714.” (Mary Bellis) (Mercury thermometers are still prominent in today's society.) In 1724, the first temperature scale was named after its creator “The Fahrenheit Scale.”

The Celsius Scale was invented by a Swedish astronomer named Anders Celsius. “The Celsius scale is often times referred to as the centigrade scale which means consisting of or dividing by 100.” (Mary Bellis) The scale has 100 degrees between freezing point (0) and boiling point (100.) This scale was adopted in 1948 to be the international scale that is used for temperature.

These are two scales that were invented to calculate temperatures of water, of air, and of certain gases. The scales were created to quantify temperature, which was previously unable to be calculated for many millennia.

Citations

Bellis, Mary. Who Invented the Thermometer - Fahrenheit Celsius and Kelvin Scales., 2015, theinventors.org/library/inventors/blthermometer.htm.