I went to school in North Carolina. In case you're not familiar with it, it's in the southern part of the United States. I don't know about anyone else, but all of my science classes from first grade through twelfth mostly taught temperature using the Fahrenheit scale. If it was important for us to know something in Celsius-for instance, the boiling and freezing points of water-, we were simply given the value. I think the teachers might have told us how to convert from Celsius to Fahrenheit and back, but they didn't spend much time on it. Many of my exchange-student friends had the opposite problem. They learned to tell temperature mostly in Celsius because most people outside of the United States use the metric system, but they didn't always know or remember how to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit. Since many of us were communication or English majors, we didn't really need to know the way to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit. I only had to take three science classes! However, my college was full of science and engineering majors who *did* need to know how to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit. Here's the basic formula for how to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit, as dictated to me by my chemistry-major husband:

The formula for to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit is easier if you take the freezing and boiling points of water in each scale and keep them in mind. In the Celsius scale, water freezes at 0 degrees and boils at 100 degrees. In the Fahrenheit scale, water freezes at 32 degrees and boils at 212 degrees. The difference between the two scales is 180 degrees. This means that the basic formula for how to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit is as follows:

Each degree on the Celsius scale is equal to 180/100 or 9/5 degrees Fahrenheit. Take the Celsius temperature and multiply it by 9/5. Then, add 32 degrees to make up for the offset. I personally find fractions rather confusing, but here is how to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit using a normal body temperature of 37 degrees Celsius:

37 x 9/5 = 333/5, or 66.6.  66.6 + 32 = 98.6.

98.6 F is the normal body temperature.

If you'd rather use decimals instead of fractions in learning the conversion from Celsius to Fahrenheit, consider that 1.8 in decimals is equal to 9/5 in fractions. This would make the formula for how to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit look more like this:

Multiply the Celsius temperature by 2. Then, take 1/10 of this number (0.2 in decimals) and subtract it from the first number. Then, add the 32 degrees to make up for the offset.  In other words:

37 x 2 = 74

74 x 0.2 = 7.4

74 - 7.4 =66.6

66.6 + 32 = 98.6.

This formula for for converting Celsius to Fahrenheit was pretty easy for people like my husband who are very good at math, but still kind of confusing to me. That's okay, though, because a writer wouldn't have much of a reason to know converting Celsius to Fahrenheit. If I ever go to another country and need to know how to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit, I'll just bring my husband along. I was going to do that anyway, so it all works out.