Question

Frost damage to most plants occurs at temperatures of 28.0ºF or lower. What is this temperature on the Kelvin scale?

Short answer

Frost damage to most plants occurs at temperatures of \({\rm{28}}{\rm{.0}}^\circ F\) or lower. So the corresponding temperature on the Kelvin scale is 270.9 K.

Step-by-step solution

Kelvin scale

The 3 most commonly used temperature scales are Fahrenheit, Celcius, and Kelvin scale.

The Kelvin scale is the commonly used temperature scale in science. It is an absolute temperature scale, which has 0 K at the lowest possible temperature, which is known as absolute zero. It is mainly used in scientific work, because, lots of physical quantities, like the volume of an ideal gas, are related to absolute temperature.

Relation between Kelvin scale and Celcius scale

You can convert the temperature on the Celcius scale to the Kelvin scale using the relation,

$\mathbf{T}\left(K\right)\mathbf{=}\mathbf{T}\left(°C\right)\mathbf{+}\mathbf{273}\mathbf{.}\mathbf{15}$

Where, the temperature on the Fahrenheit scale = 28.0℉

Then, you need to find the corresponding Kelvin temperature

$\begin{array}{rcl}\mathbf{T}\left(K\right)& \mathbf{=}& \frac{\mathbf{5}}{\mathbf{9}}\left(28.0-32\right)\mathbf{+}\mathbf{273}\mathbf{.}\mathbf{15}\\ & \mathbf{=}& \mathbf{270}\mathbf{.}\mathbf{9}\mathbf{K}\end{array}$

From this, we get the final temperature in Kelvin is 270.9 K