temperature
There are other units in chemistry that are important, and we will cover others in the course of the entire book. One of the fundamental quantities in science is temperature. Temperature is a measure of the average amount of energy of motion, or kinetic energy, a system contains. Temperatures are expressed using scales that use units called degrees, and there are several temperature scales in use. In the United States, the commonly used temperature scale is the Fahrenheit scale symbolized by F and spoken as degrees Fahrenheit . On this scale, the freezing point of liquid water the temperature at which liquid water turns to solid ice is 32F, and the boiling point of water the temperature at which liquid water turns to steam is 212F. Science also uses other scales to express temperature. The Celsius scale symbolized by C and spoken as degrees Celsius is a temperature scale where 0C is the freezing point of water and 100C is the boiling point of water; the scale is divided into 100 divisions between these two landmarks and extended higher and lower. By comparing the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales, a conversion between the two scales can be determined: C= F32 59 Saylor URL: http://www. saylor. org/books.