Josh and Erin in the Twin Cities

So, the last few weeks here in the great white north have gotten me thinking, where did Fahrenheit come from? I dont know about you, but it seems somewhat illogical that the temperature of freezing water is 32, and 0 is (obviously) 32 degrees lower. What is that all about? That doesn't make sense! When it is -14 degrees outside, that is really closer to 50 degrees below freezing. What point is zero in this equation anyway?

So, I did some research and learned that the tool that came up with Fahrenhiet, actually a guy named Fahrenheit, basically took the coldest outdoor temperature where he lived and made that 0, he then took his body temperature and made that 100. He added 180 to the freezing temp of water, which turned out to be 32, to get his the boiling point of water, or 212.

So, instead of using 0 as the freezing point of water and 100 as the boiling point of water as they did in Centigrade, he decided to make up his own silly arbitrary system, and now we are stuck with it. Oh yeah, and that whole. "The US is going Metric" thing they have been telling us all our lives? Yeah, the rest of the world already did that, we just haven't been able to get on that boat...