Example from Physics, 11.1 Temperature and Thermal Energy

Converting Between Temperature Scales: The Reaumur Scale

The Reaumur scale is a temperature scale that was used widely in Europe in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. On the Reaumur temperature scale, the freezing point of water is 0 $°R$ and the boiling temperature is 80 $°R.$ If “room temperature” is 25 $°C$ on the Celsius scale, what is it on the Reaumur scale?

Work it out on paper first. Then open the solution one step at a time, and stop as soon as you can finish on your own.

Strategy
To answer this question, we must compare the Reaumur scale to the Celsius scale. The difference between the freezing point and boiling point of water on the Reaumur scale is 80 $°R$ . On the Celsius scale, it is 100 $°C$ . Therefore, 100 $°C = 80 °R$ . Both scales start at 0 $°$ for freezing, so we can create a simple formula to convert between temperatures on the two scales.
2
Solution
1. Derive a formula to convert from one scale to the other.
  $T_{°R} = \frac{0 .80°R}{°C} \times T_{°C}$
  11.5
2. Plug the known value into the equation and solve.
  $T_{°R} = \frac{0 .80°R}{°C} \times 25 °C = 20°R$
  11.6

0 of 2 steps open

How did it go?

Strategy

Solution

Strategy

Solution