text: what is the basis for the fahrenheit scale? zero celsius means water freezes; zero kelvin means zero molecular activity – what does zero fahrenheit mean? ere are several competing versions of the story of how fahrenheit came to devise his temperature scale. one states that fahrenheit established the zero (0 °f) and 100 °f points on his scale by recording the lowest outdoor temperatures he could measure, and his own body temperature. he took as his zero point the lowest temperature he measured in the harsh winter of 1708 through 1709 in his home town of gdańsk (danzig) (−17.8 °c). (he was later able to reach this temperature under laboratory conditions using a mixture of ice, ammonium chloride and water.) fahrenheit wanted to avoid the negative temperatures which ole rømer's scale had produced in everyday use. fahrenheit fixed his own body temperature as 100 °f (normal body temperature is closer to 98.6 °f, suggesting that fahrenheit was suffering a fever when he conducted his experiments or that his thermometer was not very accurate), and divided his original scale into twelve divisions; later dividing each of these into 8 equal subdivisions produced a scale of 96 degrees. fahrenheit noted that his scale placed the freezing point of water at 32 °f and the boiling point at 212 °f, a neat 180 degrees apart.