Fahrenheit is a temperature scale based on one proposed in 1724 by the German physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit , after whom the scale is named. On Fahrenheit's original scale the lower defining point was the lowest temperature to which he could reproducibly cool brine , while the highest was that of the average human core body temperature . There exist several stories on the exact original definition of his scale; however, some of the specifics have been presumed lost or exaggerated with time. The scale is now usually defined by two fixed points: the temperature at which water freezes into ice is defined as 32 degrees, and the boiling point of water is defined to be 212 degrees, a 180 degree separation, as defined at sea level and standard atmospheric pressure.