Celsius and Kelvin

[Brandon Padilla 2L]

I am still a little confused as to why exactly C and K can be used interchangeably. Could someone elaborate further please?

[elliemehrara]

Because the conversion between Celsius and Kelvin is K = C + 273, when we are calculating the change in temperature, we can use them interchangeably as they yield the same difference. For example, if we have an initial temperature of 0 degrees Celsius and a final temperature of 100 degrees Celsius, the change in temperature is 100 degrees Celsius. Now if we convert both of those values to Kelvin and find the change in temperature we will get 373 K - 273 K, giving us the same change in temperature of 100 degrees K.

[amara ajon 1d]

Hi,
Although we use K for a lot of calculations, the two can be used interchangeably since their scale is exactly the same — a one degree increase in one is equivalent to a one degree increase in the other, allowing us to use the two interchangeably when talking about temperature changes/differences.

[Hannah Carsey 1B]

Kelvin measures temperature as energy content, while Celsius measures temperature as a degree of change between two points. Kelvin does use the same unit interval as Celcius. So 1° difference in Celcius is equal to 1 Kelvin. A change of one degree Celsius equals a change of one Kelvin (change in means final minus initial), but a Celsius temperature is never equal to a Kelvin temperature. There are no negative temperatures in the Kelvin scale.

[Alena Zhu 2I]

While it's true that Celsius and Kelvin have the same scale in terms of each degree increase being equal, the two temperature values can't always be used interchangeable because some formulas require that temperature be in Kelvin to get the correct answer. Otherwise we would sometimes get negative values because the Celsius temperature value is 273 smaller than the Kelvin value.

[Sammy Liu]

Kelvins are just Celsius + 273. Kelvins are used for certain equations that don't work when the temperature value is negative. Kelvins are used as a replacement because it is measurement that was designed to never go below zero.

Hope this helps!