Anders Celsius Biography

Anders Celsius was a Swedish astronomer, physicist and mathematician who proposed the Celsius temperature scale and founded the Uppsala Observatory. Born in Sweden, he was raised in the shadow of his father, an astronomy professor. Anders showed an extraordinary talent in mathematics from childhood and after completing his education, decided to become an astronomer. He made earlier observations concerning aurora borealis (northern lights) and is regarded as the first astronomer to suggest a connection between aurora borealis and changes in the Earth's magnetic field. He also assessed the brightness of stars with measuring tools. Later, he participated in an expedition which proved the Newton’s theory that the Earth has the shape of an ellipsoid, flattened at the poles. After succeeding in the expedition, he laid the foundation of Uppsala Astronomical Observatory, the oldest astronomical observatory in Sweden. However, he is most famous for the temperature scale he proposed based on the boiling and freezing points of water. Later on, a reversed form of his original design was adopted as the standard and used in almost all the scientific works. He started many other research projects but died unexpectedly before he could complete most of them. He was an extraordinary astronomer, and as a tribute to his accomplishments, the standard unit on the temperature scale, “Celsius”, is named after him.