Daniel Fahrenheit, the guy behind the scale, was a bit of a mad inventor. He didn’t start with water. He started with a brine mixture—salt, ice, and water—and called that 0°. Charming, right?
Then, he used his own body temperature as 100°. Yikes. That’s why the freezing point of water landed on 32°. It was purely accidental.
So when you see 32°F, remember: you’re looking at water freezing, but you’re also looking at history’s most famous guesstimate.
