On my graphing calculator (TI-86) I have temperature conversions. I know the F, C, and K–BUT, there is one called R.
What is it and how does it measure up with the other temps?
The Rankine scale is an absolute temperature scale (meaning absolute zero is 0ºR). The magnitude of a degree is the same as on the Fahrenheit scale, so the temperature on the Rankine scale is always a little less than 460º lower than the corresponding temperature on the Fahrenheit scale. The scale is named after William John Macquorn Rankine.
°R is for Rankin, the Russian Temperature unit.
Rankine is based on the same size units as °Fahrenheit except that water freezes at 459.67 Rankine
That temperature scale is degrees Rankine, the non-metric absolute temperature scale. (“Absolute”, meaning that zero deg R is absolute zero.)
Zero degrees Rankine is thus the same temperature as zero kelvins, that is, absolute zero.
Zero deg R is also equal to -459.67 deg F.
A Rankine degree is the same size as a Farenheit degree.
A kelvin is the same size as a Celsius degree.
I should note there is also a Réaumur scale, named after René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, but that is very rarely used. I don’t think it it was ever abbreviated ºR, but a dim memory suggests ºRe might have been used. This scale sets zero as the melting point of water (same as Celsius), but 80 as the boiling point of water.
William John Macquorn Rankine was a Scottish engineer and physicist, who proposed his namesake temperature scale in 1859. I don’t know of any particular Russian connection.
Also water freezes at 32 °F, not 0 °F, so in degrees Rankine, water freezes at 491.67 °R.
The only sources I can find for the Réaumur scale say it too was denoted “ºR”.
Note that there were also temperature scales created by Dalton and Giaque too, both of which are just as obsolete as Réaumur.
I’ve also heard reference to an Einstein temperature scale, which is logrithmic (thus ensuring that any positive or negative number would yield a valid temperature). I’ve never, however, seen this scale actually used.
Well, I was all set to get out my copy of Crime and Punishment to mention a connection, but, uh, it wasn’t the Rankin scale. :smack:
In Part 3, there’s a part that says, “… thirty degrees Réaumur…”, which, according to the notes, is equivalent to 100ºF or 38ºC. So Dostoevsky (assumedly) used the Réaumur scale.