FAHRENHEIT
Gabriel Fahrenheit was born in Danzig, now Gdansk, Poland. Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit (1686-1736) went to Holland at an early age to study physics and instrument making. After completing his studies, he settled there as a maker of meteorological instruments and spent a great deal of his time working with thermometer, trying to improve their standard. In 1709, he developed the alcohol-filled thermometer which he made more accurate five years later by replacing the alcohol with mercury.
            Fahrenheit also advised a new temperature scale based on fixed points that he had observed: the temperature of melting ice at 32 Fahrenheit and the normal temperature of the human body at 96 F (later covered to 98.6 F). He found that water boiled at 212 F according to his scale and this later became the fixed upper point of the Fahrenheit thermometer. The Fahrenheit temperature scale was in common use in English speaking countries for many years until 1960s. Most of these countries with this exception of the United States have now changed to the more convenient and widespread Celsius (centigrade scale).
(Adapted from encyclopedia)
Use your dictionary to find the meaning of these words.
  1. Settle (v):
  2. Meteorological (adj.):
  3. Improve (v):
  4. Replace (v):
  5. Mercury (n):
  1. Devised (v):
  2. Scale (n):
  3. Fixed (v):
  4. Convenient (adj.):
  5. Widespread (adj.):

A.     Answer these questions correctly!
1.   Who found Fahrenheit thermometer?
2.   Where was Fahrenheit born?
3.   What subject did he study in Holland?
4.   What did he do as a meteorological instrument?
5.   When did he develop the alcohol-filled thermometer?
6.   How did he make thermometer more accurate five years later?
7.   What point is the temperature of melting ice?
8.   What point is the temperature of boiled water?
9.   Where was the Fahrenheit temperature scale used commonly?
10.   Why have most English – Speaking countries with the exception of the United States changed the Fahrenheit temperature to Celsius?

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