Temperature conversion

Unlike meters and seconds, the temperature units fahrenheits and celsius are non-multiplicative units. These temperature units are expressed in a system with a reference point, and relations between temperature units include not only a scaling factor but also an offset. Pint supports these type of units and conversions between them. The default definition file includes fahrenheits, celsius, kelvin and rankine abbreviated as degF, degC, degK, and degR.

For example, to convert from celsius to fahrenheit:

>>> from pint import UnitRegistry
>>> ureg = UnitRegistry()
>>> ureg.default_format = '.3f'
>>> Q_ = ureg.Quantity
>>> home = Q_(25.4, ureg.degC)
>>> print(home.to('degF'))
77.720 degree_Fahrenheit

or to other kelvin or rankine:

>>> print(home.to('kelvin'))
298.550 kelvin
>>> print(home.to('degR'))
537.390 degree_Rankine

Additionally, for every non-multiplicative temperature unit in the registry, there is also a delta counterpart to specify differences. Absolute units have no delta counterpart. For example, the change in celsius is equal to the change in kelvin, but not in fahrenheit (as the scaling factor is different).

>>> increase = 12.3 * ureg.delta_degC
>>> print(increase.to(ureg.kelvin))
12.300 kelvin
>>> print(increase.to(ureg.delta_degF))
22.140 delta_degree_Fahrenheit

Subtraction of two temperatures given in offset units yields a delta unit:

>>> Q_(25.4, ureg.degC) - Q_(10., ureg.degC)
<Quantity(15.4, 'delta_degree_Celsius')>

You can add or subtract a quantity with delta unit and a quantity with offset unit:

>>> Q_(25.4, ureg.degC) + Q_(10., ureg.delta_degC)
<Quantity(35.4, 'degree_Celsius')>
>>> Q_(25.4, ureg.degC) - Q_(10., ureg.delta_degC)
<Quantity(15.4, 'degree_Celsius')>

If you want to add a quantity with absolute unit to one with offset unit, like here

>>> heating_rate = 0.5 * ureg.kelvin/ureg.min
>>> Q_(10., ureg.degC) + heating_rate * Q_(30, ureg.min)
Traceback (most recent call last):
        ...
OffsetUnitCalculusError: Ambiguous operation with offset unit (degC, kelvin).

you have to avoid the ambiguity by either converting the offset unit to the absolute unit before addition

>>> Q_(10., ureg.degC).to(ureg.kelvin) + heating_rate * Q_(30, ureg.min)
<Quantity(298.15, 'kelvin')>

or convert the absolute unit to a delta unit:

>>> Q_(10., ureg.degC) + heating_rate.to('delta_degC/min') * Q_(30, ureg.min)
<Quantity(25.0, 'degree_Celsius')>

In contrast to subtraction, the addition of quantities with offset units is ambiguous, e.g. for 10 degC + 100 degC two different result are reasonable depending on the context, 110 degC or 383.15 °C (= 283.15 K + 373.15 K). Because of this ambiguity pint raises an error for the addition of two quantities with offset units (since pint-0.6).

Quantities with delta units are multiplicative:

>>> speed = 60. * ureg.delta_degC / ureg.min
>>> print(speed.to('delta_degC/second'))
1.000 delta_degree_Celsius / second

However, multiplication, division and exponentiation of quantities with offset units is problematic just like addition. Pint (since version 0.6) will by default raise an error when a quantity with offset unit is used in these operations. Due to this quantities with offset units cannot be created like other quantities by multiplication of magnitude and unit but have to be explicitly created:

>>> ureg = UnitRegistry()
>>> home = 25.4 * ureg.degC
Traceback (most recent call last):
    ...
OffsetUnitCalculusError: Ambiguous operation with offset unit (degC).
>>> Q_(25.4, ureg.degC)
<Quantity(25.4, 'degree_Celsius')>

As an alternative to raising an error, pint can be configured to work more relaxed via setting the UnitRegistry parameter autoconvert_offset_to_baseunit to true. In this mode, pint behaves differently:

• Multiplication of a quantity with a single offset unit with order +1 by a number or ndarray yields the quantity in the given unit.

>>> ureg = UnitRegistry(autoconvert_offset_to_baseunit = True)
>>> T = 25.4 * ureg.degC
>>> T
<Quantity(25.4, 'degree_Celsius')>

• Before all other multiplications, all divisions and in case of exponentiation [1] involving quantities with offset-units, pint will convert the quantities with offset units automatically to the corresponding base unit before performing the operation.

>>> 1/T
<Quantity(0.0033495..., '1 / kelvin')>
>>> T * 10 * ureg.meter
<Quantity(527.15, 'kelvin * meter')>

You can change the behaviour at any time:

>>> ureg.autoconvert_offset_to_baseunit = False
>>> 1/T
Traceback (most recent call last):
    ...
OffsetUnitCalculusError: Ambiguous operation with offset unit (degC).

The parser knows about delta units and uses them when a temperature unit is found in a multiplicative context. For example, here:

>>> print(ureg.parse_units('degC/meter'))
delta_degree_Celsius / meter

but not here:

>>> print(ureg.parse_units('degC'))
degree_Celsius

You can override this behaviour:

>>> print(ureg.parse_units('degC/meter', as_delta=False))
degree_Celsius / meter

Note that the magnitude is left unchanged:

>>> Q_(10, 'degC/meter')
<Quantity(10, 'delta_degree_Celsius / meter')>

To define a new temperature, you need to specify the offset. For example, this is the definition of the celsius and fahrenheit:

degC = degK; offset: 273.15 = celsius
degF = 5 / 9 * degK; offset: 255.372222 = fahrenheit

You do not need to define delta units, as they are defined automatically.

[1]

If the exponent is +1, the quantity will not be converted to base unit but remains unchanged.