Newton
Abbreviation/Symbol:
ºN
Worldwide use:
The temperature unit Newton (not to be confused with the unit of Force) is hardly used today. It is an obscure unit of measurement resigned to the history books and not recognized today.
Definition:
Named after Sir Isaac Newton, it is defined by the temperature difference between the freezing and boiling points of water divided into 33 degrees.
While the Newton is not used today it can be occasionally found in old textbooks. The Newton scale was surpassed by the Celsius, Fahrenheit and Kelvin scales which are today's standards.
Origin:
The Newton is an obscure unit that is not used at all these days. It is named after Sir Isaac Newton. It is interesting to note that Newton himself did not create or develop this unit of temperature.
Instead a German physicist named Georg Christoph Lichtenberg created the Newton scale in the late 1900s. Known for his work in electricity and magnetism, he suggested the use of the Newton scale as an alternative setting the freezing and boiling points of water as 0°N and 33°N respectively.
The Newton scale never gained acceptance and is now obsolete. The Celsius and Fahrenheit scales continue to be the popular units of temperature measurement wordwide.
Common references:
Freezing point of water: 0°N
Boiling point of water: 33°N
Usage context:
The Newton is a unit of temperature that is not used today. It did not gain widespread acceptance and is now obsolete.
The Newton scale never became popular. The Newton scale was difficult to convert between other temperature scales and Celsius and Kelvin scales became widely adopted and accepted by the scientific community.