What the Fahrenheit?

"What the Fahrenheit?" is like asking, "What is this new way to measure how hot or cold something is?"

Imagine you have a thermometer in your hand, it’s like a mini weather reporter that tells you if your soup is too hot to eat or if your ice cream is just right. In Fahrenheit, the numbers on that thermometer go from about 32 (which is when water turns into ice) all the way up to around 212 (when water boils and becomes steam). It’s like having a scale where you can tell how warm or chilly it is, using numbers you can count.

Some people use Fahrenheit because it's been around for a long time, like since the 18th century! It was named after a man called Daniel Fahrenheit. He used real-life examples to make his scale: he put ice in water and salt to find zero, then measured how hot soup could get and made that 100.

Other people use Celsius, which is simpler for scientists, it goes from 0 (ice) to 100 (steam). But Fahrenheit gives more numbers, like the ones we see on our thermometers every day.