Temperature scales

Temperatures require some care. Temperature scales like K and Ra are thermodynamic temperature scales, with zero on the scale corresponding to absolute zero. Unit conversions between thermodynamic or absolute temperatures are done by multiplying conversion factors, as usual. Also in common use are temperature scales like °C or °F, which are defined relative to arbitrary offsets. For example, in the case of °C, zero on the scale is the freezing point of water, not absolute zero. To convert between relative temperature scales, an affine transformation is required. Absolute and relative temperatures can be distinguished by type to avoid ambiguities that could yield erroneous or unexpected results. On relative temperature scales, problems can arise because e.g. 0°C + 0°C could mean 0°C or 273.15°C, depending on whether the operands are variously interpreted as temperature differences or as absolute temperatures. On thermodynamic temperature scales, there is no ambiguity.

Temperatures on absolute scales

Unit conversions between temperatures on absolute scales like Kelvin or Rankine are done in the usual way by multiplication of a scale factor. For example, we have:

julia> uconvert(u"K", 1u"Ra")
5//9 K

We can identify absolute temperatures using the Unitful.AbsoluteScaleTemperature type alias:

julia> 1u"K" isa Unitful.AbsoluteScaleTemperature
true

Temperatures on relative scales

Unit conversions between temperatures on relative scales like Celsius or Fahrenheit involve an affine transformation, that is, a scaling plus some translation (scale offset). In Unitful, relative scale temperatures are considered to have the same dimension as absolute scale temperatures, as expected. However, temperatures on relative and absolute scales are distinguished by the type of the Unitful.Units object (and therefore the type of the Unitful.Quantity object).

julia> uconvert(u"°C", 32u"°F")
0//1 °C

We can identify relative scale temperatures using the Unitful.RelativeScaleTemperature type alias, e.g.:

julia> 1u"°C" isa Unitful.RelativeScaleTemperature
true

Some operations are not well defined with relative scale temperatures, and therefore throw an Unitful.AffineError (please report any unexpected behavior on the GitHub issue tracker).

julia> 32u"°F" + 1u"°F"
ERROR: AffineError: an invalid operation was attempted with affine quantities: 32 °F + 1 °F
[...]

julia> 32u"°F" * 2
ERROR: AffineError: an invalid operation was attempted with affine quantities: 32 °F*2
[...]

There is a general mechanism for making units that indicate quantities should unit-convert under some affine transformation. While the usual use case is for relative scale temperatures, nothing in the implementation limits it as such. Accordingly, relative scale temperatures are considered to be Unitful.AffineQuantity objects with dimensions of temperature. The units on "affine quantities" are Unitful.AffineUnits objects.

Making your own affine units typically requires two steps. First, define the absolute unit using the Unitful.@unit macro. Second, use the Unitful.@affineunit macro to make a corresponding affine unit. As an example, this is how Ra and °F are implemented:

@unit Ra "Ra" Rankine (5//9)*K false
@affineunit °F "°F" (45967//100)Ra

The preferred unit for promoting temperatures is usually K when using Unitful.FreeUnits.

AffineUnits{N,D,A} = Units{N,D,A} where A<:Affine

AffineQuantity{T,D,U} = AbstractQuantity{T,D,U} where U<:AffineUnits

ScalarUnits{N,D} = Units{N,D,nothing}

ScalarQuantity{T,D,U} = AbstractQuantity{T,D,U} where U<:ScalarUnits

absoluteunit(::Units)
absoluteunit(::Quantity)