The Chemistry Book

Things to Remember

Students should be able to convert between the Celsius and Kelvin temperature scales easily.

Temperature scale conversions is a major topic for chemistry students.

Temperature Scales

Comparison of temperature scales

Three main scales are discussed in chemistry.

1. Fahrenheit: Part of the system of English Units and commonly used in the USA.
2. Kelvin: The SI Unit for fundamental temperature scale.
3. Celsius: The common temperature scale for most of the world.

Celsius and Kelvin are used in many chemistry calculations.

1. Kelvin degrees (i. e., temperature differences on the Kelvin scale) are the same as Celsius degrees).
2. Absolute zero was originally proposed by Joseph Lambert in 1779

Temperature Scale Conversions

1. Water freezes at 273.15 K (i. e., on the Kelvin scale), so to convert from Celsius to Kelvin, you add 273.15.
2. To convert from Kelvin to Celsius, you subtract 273.15.