Why does the Fahrenheit scale start from 32 degrees?

Answer 1

Fahrenheit established the scale on his thermometer by setting zero as the temperature outside on a very cold day - basically he set zero at a condition where things were as cold as he could find. He set 100 as being body temperature; normal body temperature is now considered to be around 98.6 °F but we can certainly accept this small deviation. 32 °F just happens to be the temperature that corresponded to the normal freezing point of water on the scale he established.

Answer 2

Mercury thermometer was invented by German physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit in 1724 and is a thermometer consisting of mercury in a glass tube. Till then though the concept of temperature was understood no number as such was given. Gabriel decided to quantify and mark two temperatures one for the freezing point of water on one end and at the other end the boiling point of water. He initially decided to mark 360 divisions between these two limits ( to coincide with 360 angular degrees of a full circle) but due to the practical difficulty of each division becoming too small he decided on 180 division. As a result each division on Gabriel's thermometer is 1/180 degree (he decided to call it degree a well). He concocted a mixture of ICE+WATER+ Ammonium chloride. He inserted his thermometer in to this mixture and finding that, this mixture was even colder than ICE+WATER and hence decided to mark it zero and call this 00 F. Next he inserted his thermometer in to the freezing mixture of Ice water and found the mercury rising to 32 deg and thus in the Fahrenheit scale the freezing temp. of water became 32o F. and automatically the boiling point of water became 32+180 = 212o F.

Answer 3

The Fahrenheit scale starts at 32 degrees because it was based on a scale devised by Gabriel Fahrenheit using a mixture of water, ice, and salt to establish zero as the freezing point of water and 32 as the freezing point of a brine solution.