One of the biggest honors a scientist can receive is to become the namesake of a unit of measurement — a fitting reward if they’re the ones who discovered what’s being measured in the first place. (All four of our “Rushmore” scientists have units named after them, though only Newton’s made it into the official International System of Units.) Sometimes, though, the label is all we know of the scientist. Let’s revisit the people behind the units.
Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit
(1686–1736) The Dutch physicist invented alcohol and mercury thermometers, as well as the temperature scale that now bears his name (and perplexes the world outside the U.S. and a handful of other countries), with 0 degrees marking the temperature of a 1-1 mix of ice and salt.
