Kelvin

The kelvin (symbol: K) is a unit to measure temperature. It is one of the seven SI base units. It is defined by two factors: zero kelvin is absolute zero (when molecular motion stops), and one kelvin is the fraction 1/273.16 of the thermodynamic temperature of the triple point of water (0.01 °C). The Celsius temperature scale is now defined in terms of the kelvin.

It is named after the physicist and engineer William Thomson, who became Lord Kelvin when he was made a peer.

The kelvin as an SI unit is correctly written with a lowercase k (unless at the beginning of a sentence), and is never preceded by the words degree or degrees, or the symbol °, unlike Fahrenheit, Celsius or centigrade. This is because the latter three are scales of measurement, whereas the kelvin is a unit of measurement.

Conversion factors

kelvin to Celsius

<math>K - 273.15</math>

Celsius to kelvin

<math>C + 273.15</math>

kelvin to Fahrenheit

<math>(1.8 \times K) - 459.67</math>

Fahrenheit to kelvin

<math>\frac{(F + 459.67)}{1.8}</math>

electron volts to kelvin

<math>\frac{eV}{11,604}</math>

kelvin to electron volts

<math>K \times 11,604</math>

External link

• Conversion Calculator for Units of TEMPERATURE (http://www.ex.ac.uk/cimt/dictunit/cctemp.htm)