Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit in the context of "Heliostat"

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⭐ Core Definition: Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit

Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit FRS (24 May 1686 – 16 September 1736) was a physicist, inventor, and scientific instrument maker. He was born in Poland to a family of German origin, although he spent much of his life in the Dutch Republic. Fahrenheit significantly improved the design and manufacture of thermometers; his were accurate and consistent enough that different observers, each with their own Fahrenheit thermometers, could reliably compare temperature measurements with each other. Fahrenheit is also credited with producing the first successful mercury-in-glass thermometers, which were more accurate than the spirit-filled thermometers of his time and of a generally superior design. The popularity of his thermometers also led to the widespread adoption of his Fahrenheit scale, with which they were provided.

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👉 Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit in the context of Heliostat

A heliostat (from Ancient Greek ἥλιος (hḗlĭos) 'sun' and στατός (stătós) 'standing')is a device that reflects sunlight toward a target, turning to compensate for the Sun's apparent motion.The reflector is usually a plane mirror.

The target may be a physical object, distant from the heliostat, or a direction in space. To do this, the reflective surface of the mirror is kept perpendicular to the bisector of the angle between the directions of the Sun and the target as seen from the mirror. In almost every case, the target is stationary relative to the heliostat, so the light is reflected in a fixed direction. According to contemporary sources the heliostata, as it was called at first, was invented by Willem 's Gravesande (1688–1742). Other contenders are Giovanni Alfonso Borelli (1608–1679) and Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736). A heliostat designed by George Johnstone Storey is in the Science Museum Group collection.

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Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit in the context of Fahrenheit

The Fahrenheit scale (/ˈfærənht, ˈfɑːr-/) is a temperature scale based on one proposed in 1724 by the physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736). It uses the degree Fahrenheit (symbol: °F) as the unit. Several accounts of how he originally defined his scale exist, but the original paper suggests the lower defining point, 0 °F, was established as the freezing temperature of a solution of brine made from a mixture of water, ice, and ammonium chloride (a salt). The other limit established was his best estimate of the average human body temperature, originally set at 90 °F, then 96 °F (about 2.6 °F less than the modern value due to a later redefinition of the scale).

For much of the 20th century, the Fahrenheit scale was defined by two fixed points with a 180 °F separation: the temperature at which pure water freezes was defined as 32 °F and the boiling point of water was defined to be 212 °F, both at sea level and under standard atmospheric pressure. It is now formally defined using the Kelvin scale.

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Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit in the context of Supercooling

Supercooling, also known as undercooling, is the process of lowering the temperature of a liquid below its freezing point without it becoming a solid. Per the established international definition, supercooling means "cooling a substance below the normal freezing point without solidification". While it can be achieved by different physical means, the postponed solidification is most often due to the absence of seed crystals or nuclei around which a crystal structure can form. The supercooling of water can be achieved without any special techniques other than chemical demineralization, down to −48.3 °C (−54.9 °F). Supercooled water can occur naturally, for example in the atmosphere, animals or plants.

This phenomenon was first identified in 1724 by Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, while developing the Fahrenheit scale.

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