Subject: Re: Metric essay

[ken mayer]

> Date: Mon, 7 Jun 1999 09:52:37 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Pat Ford <pford at qnx.com>
> 
> Previously, you (ken mayer) wrote:
[snip]

> > When Mr. Fahrenheit invented the thermometer, he had marked some arbitrary
> > scale on it.  When he placed it into icewater, it read 32.  When he placed
> > it in his wife's mouth, it read 98.7.  
> 
> I'm NOT saying my wife is cold but she read 37.6 8))
> 
> >When he placed it into boiling
> > water, it read 212.  It has nothing to do with feeling hot or cold.  The
> > scale is entirely arbitrary.
> 
> Close but no cigar 0 degree f is the freezing point of acohol (sp?)
> 100F is the boiling point of acohol

What alcohol are you referring to?  There's tens of thousands of
"alcohol" compounds.  Some of the simple ones are:  
Methanol mp= -93.9C,bp= 64.96C 
Ethanol mp= -117.3C, bp=78.5C  
1-propanol mp= -126.5C, bp= 97.4C
1-butanol mp= -89.53C, bp=117.25C   
1-pentanol mp= -79C bp= 137.3C
None of these temperatures converts to 0F or 100F.  The trend is that the
larger molecules have a successively higher boiling point (as expected).

Ken
:-)