Celsius was professor of astronomy at the University of Uppsala from 1730 until his death in 1744. He is mainly known for introducing the centigrade temperature scale, since 1948 known as the Celsius scale.Astronomer and geodesist, b. 27 November 1701 (Uppsala, Sweden), d. 25 April 1744 (Uppsala).
Celsius was professor of astronomy at the University of Uppsala from 1730 until his death in 1744. He is mainly known for introducing the centigrade temperature scale, since 1948 known as the Celsius scale.
Celsius built the Uppsala observatory in 1740. In 1736 he proposed an expedition to Lappland to verify Newton's theory that the Earth is slightly flattened at the poles and participated in it. His paper on observations relating to the shape of the Earth appeared in 1738.
The Celsius scale was originally simply known as the centigrade scale. In its original form of 1742 the melting point of ice was set to 100° and the boiling point of water at normal atmospheric pressure to 0°. The scale was later inverted so that the melting point of ice is at 0°C and the boiling point of water at 100°C, and in that form it was renamed in 1948 the Celsius scale. It is used in most countries of the world and is the standard temperature scale in science.