Converting Fahrenheit to Celsius for Cooking and Baking

Understanding the Fahrenheit and Celsius Scales

These two scales for measuring temperature are named for and were initially proposed in the early 1700s by two scientists, Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit from Germany in 1724, and Anders Celsius from Sweden in 1742. Each scale is based on two fixed reference points and has been developed to its modern form over many decades.

Fahrenheit chose to use the temperature of frozen salted water for the lower fixed point and the average human body temperature as the higher fixed point for his temperature scale.

In contrast, the Celsius scale (also called the Centigrade scale) is entirely based on the temperature of water. The freezing point of water is the lower fixed point, and the boiling point of water is the higher fixed point.

As a result, on the Fahrenheit scale, the freezing of water (ice) occurs at 32° and the boiling of water occurs at 212°.

While on the Celsius scale, the freezing of water occurs at 0° and water boils at 100°.

Therefore, these two scales each have water freezing and boiling at a different temperature on their respective scales, and the temperature units, i.e. the value of a degree, are also different.

Both scales are currently used in cooking and baking.

The Fahrenheit scale is commonly used in the United States, Antigua, Barbuda, Saint Kitts, Nevis, the Bahamas, Belize, and Palau. The rest of the world uses the Celsius scale and only a very few countries use both temperature scales.