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The root of the word "degree" basically means "units" or "subdivisions" or "measurements" or "amounts". We didn't really have a better word for units of temper
by Karellen 3y ago
The root of the word "degree" basically means "units" or "subdivisions" or "measurements" or "amounts".
We didn't really have a better word for units of temperature, as "Celsiuses" or "Farhenheits" didn't become a thing, so "degrees (of) Celsius" or "degrees (of) Fahrenheit" is kind of what we're left with. We could have chosen to say "degrees (of) kelvin", but we decided to go with "kelvins" (like "meters" or "seconds") instead. It's just a choice of language.
Temperature does have dimensionality, but it's weird because it's a bulk property of a particular material. If you consider two stars, you can add their masses, or their volumes, and the resulting values are meaningful. But you can't add their temperatures. You can't even average their temperatures meaningfully without knowing the relative sizes of the stars and a bunch of other information either.
That said, I can't think of a situation where degrees (of temperature?) would disappear in a mathematical operation. Can you give a specific example?
- trepanne 3y ago> That said, I can't think of a situation where degrees (of temperature?) would disappear in a mathematical operation. I regret that the decades that have elapsed since I studied physical chemistry & thermodynamics don’t permit me to make a proper answer, but if you want this to make sense I believe you should look many orders of magnitude smaller- Boltzman’s derivation of the ideal gas law from Newtonian mechanics using statistical methods. Temperature is basically thermal density; it’s not really a fundamental unit. Chemical engineers use steam tables all the time to convert temperature to heat or other quantities.