Q 01/05

In US forecasts given in Fahrenheit, the heat index combines air temperature with which other reading?

A) Barometric pressure

B) Relative humidity

C) Cloud cover

D) UV index

Answer · why

B) Relative humidity

Relative humidity: the index assumes shade and light wind, so standing in full sunshine can raise it by up to 15 F.

Q 02/05

At what temperature does water freeze on the Fahrenheit scale?

A) 0 F

B) 32 F

C) 100 F

D) 273 F

Answer · why

B) 32 F

32 F: water freezes into ice about 9 percent less dense than the liquid, which is why ice floats.

Q 03/05

At what temperature does water boil on the Fahrenheit scale at sea level?

A) 100 F

B) 212 F

C) 500 F

D) 1,200 F

Answer · why

B) 212 F

212 F: when the scale was later redefined on water's freezing and boiling points, normal body temperature came to be quoted as about 98.6 instead of 9...

Q 04/05

Before 1948, what name was widely used for the temperature scale now called Celsius?

A) Reaumur

B) Centigrade

C) Delisle

D) Newton

Answer · why

B) Centigrade

Centigrade: a 1948 international conference renamed it, partly because in French 'centigrade' also meant a hundredth of a unit of angle.

Q 05/05

What fixed the zero point of Fahrenheit's original scale?

A) Snow packed under a bell jar

B) The melting point of salted butter

C) A brine of ice, water and ammonium chloride

D) Water with ice just forming

Answer · why

C) A brine of ice, water and ammonium chloride

A brine of ice, water and ammonium chloride: he developed the scale after visiting the Danish astronomer Ole Romer in Copenhagen in 1708.