Fahrenheit temperature scale , temperature scale in which the temperature difference between two reference temperatures, the melting and boiling points of water, is divided into 180 equal intervals called degrees. The freezing point is taken as 32°F and the boiling point as 212°F. The scale was established by the German-Dutch physicist Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit in 1724. William John Macquorn Rankine used it as the basis of his absolute temperature scale, now called the Rankine temperature scale , in 1859. Although the Fahrenheit scale was formerly used widely in English-speaking... Read more