The first estimate for the speed of light was made by danish astronomer Ole Roemer and Christiaan Huygens. Roemer used Jupiter's moon Io as it eclipsed behind the planet. He timed and recorded a series of different eclipses, some while Earth was moving toward Jupiter, and some while Earth was moving away. With Roemer taking measurements of the differences in time that the light took to reach us, Huygens used Roemer's data and the generally believed distance from Earth to Jupiter at the time and he became the first man to ever make an estimate of the velocity of light, 220,000 km/sec, within 26% of the actual value.
Roemer also created one of the worlds first temperature scales. On his 0-60 temp scale, 0 was the coldest temp he could achieve by stirring salt into and ice and water mixture, and 60 was boiling water. The generally believed story is that, Daniel Fahrenheit, after he invented the first mercury thermometer, visited Roemer, adopted his scale and increased the divisions on it by a factor of four (more of less) to make what we know today as the Fahrenheit Temperature Scale.
Anders Celcius disliked the fahrenheit scale due to the fact that it's zero point was based on briny water. He created a new scale using 100 degrees as freezing water and 0 degrees as boiling water. Well, the people that made his thermometers for him, apparently thought that they should invert the scale so that 0 was freezing and 100 was boiling, thankfully.
By the mid 1800s William Thompson (Lord Kelvin) had suggested that there should be a temperature at which a substance could no longer transfer any heat at all, not really a new idea but Thompson also suggested that there be an absolute temperature scale in which there could be no temperature lower than the lowest Temperature possible, an infinite cold, or "Absolute Zero". Using the properties of thermodynamics and the coefficient of expanding gas he calculated the actual value for absolute zero to a great degree of accuracy, -273 degrees Celsius. His scale was later refined, converted to units of celsius, and is today one of the seven base units of measure used by the SI.
Roemer also created one of the worlds first temperature scales. On his 0-60 temp scale, 0 was the coldest temp he could achieve by stirring salt into and ice and water mixture, and 60 was boiling water. The generally believed story is that, Daniel Fahrenheit, after he invented the first mercury thermometer, visited Roemer, adopted his scale and increased the divisions on it by a factor of four (more of less) to make what we know today as the Fahrenheit Temperature Scale.
Anders Celcius disliked the fahrenheit scale due to the fact that it's zero point was based on briny water. He created a new scale using 100 degrees as freezing water and 0 degrees as boiling water. Well, the people that made his thermometers for him, apparently thought that they should invert the scale so that 0 was freezing and 100 was boiling, thankfully.
By the mid 1800s William Thompson (Lord Kelvin) had suggested that there should be a temperature at which a substance could no longer transfer any heat at all, not really a new idea but Thompson also suggested that there be an absolute temperature scale in which there could be no temperature lower than the lowest Temperature possible, an infinite cold, or "Absolute Zero". Using the properties of thermodynamics and the coefficient of expanding gas he calculated the actual value for absolute zero to a great degree of accuracy, -273 degrees Celsius. His scale was later refined, converted to units of celsius, and is today one of the seven base units of measure used by the SI.