Degree symbol

The degree symbol (°) is a typographical symbol that is used,

°
among other things, to represent degrees of arc (e.g. in geographic
coordinate systems), hours (in the medical field), degrees of
temperature, alcohol proof, or diminished quality in musical
harmony.[1] The symbol consists of a small raised circle, historically
a zero glyph.
Degree symbol
In Unicode U+00B0 ° DEGREE

Contents SIGN (HTML ° ·

°)
History
Related
Typography
See also U+2103 ℃ DEGREE
Encoding CELSIUS
Lookalikes (HTML ℃)
Keyboard entry U+2109 ℉ DEGREE
Desktop OS FAHRENHEIT
Mobile OS (HTML ℉)
Software-specific Different from
See also Different U+00BA º MASCULINE
References from ORDINAL INDICATOR

External links (HTML º · º)

U+1D52 ᵒ MODIFIER
LETTER SMALL O
History (HTML ᵒ)
(superscript o)
The first known recorded modern use of the degree symbol in
mathematics is from 1657[2] where the usage seems to show that the symbol is a small raised zero, to match
the prime symbol notation of sexagesimal subdivisions of degree such as minute ( ′ ), second ( ″ ), and
third ( ‴ ), which originate as small raised Roman numerals.

Typography
In the case of degrees of angular arc, the degree symbol follows the number without any intervening space,
e.g. 30°. The addition of minute and second of arc follows the degree units, with intervening spaces
(optionally, non-breaking space) between the sexagesimal degree subdivisions but no spaces between the
numbers and units, e.g. 30° 12′ 5″.

In the case of degrees of temperature, three scientific and engineering standards bodies (the International
Bureau of Weights and Measures, the International Organization for Standardization and the U.S.
Government Printing Office) prescribe printing temperatures with a space between the number and the
degree symbol, e.g. 10 °C.[3][4] However, in many works with professional typesetting, including scientific
works published by the University of Chicago Press or Oxford University Press, the degree symbol is
printed with no spaces between the number, the symbol, and the Latin letters "C" or "F" representing Celsius
or Fahrenheit, respectively, e.g. 10°C.[5][6] This is also the practice of the University Corporation for
Atmospheric Research, which operates the National Center for Atmospheric Research.[7]

Use of the degree symbol to refer to temperatures measured in kelvins (symbol: K) was abolished in 1967
by the 13th General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM). Therefore, the triple point of water, for
instance, is written simply as 273.16 K. The name of the SI unit of temperature is now "kelvin", in lower
case, and no longer "degrees Kelvin".

In photography, the symbol is used to denote logarithmic film speed grades. In this usage, it follows the
number without spacing as in 21° DIN, 5° ASA or ISO 100/21°.

Encoding
The degree sign is included in Unicode as U+00B0 ° DEGREE SIGN (HTML ° · °).

For use with Chinese characters there are also code points for U+2103 ℃ DEGREE CELSIUS
(HTML ℃) and U+2109 ℉ DEGREE FAHRENHEIT (HTML ℉).

The degree sign was missing from the basic 7-bit ASCII set of 1963, but in 1987 the ISO/IEC 8859 standard
introduced it at position 0xB0 (176 decimal) in the Latin-1 variant. In 1991 the Unicode standard
incorporated all of the Latin-1 code points, including the degree sign.

The Windows Code Page 1252 was also an extension of the Latin-1 standard, so it had the degree sign at the
same code point. The code point in the older DOS Code Page 437 was 0xF8 (248 decimal); therefore, the
Alt code used to enter the symbol directly from the keyboard is Alt+248.

Lookalikes
Other characters with similar appearance but different meanings include:

U+00BA º MASCULINE ORDINAL INDICATOR (HTML º · º) (indicator following a

numeral denoting that it is an ordinal number, rather than a cardinal number; varies with the
font and sometimes underlined)
U+1D52 ᵒ MODIFIER LETTER SMALL O (HTML ᵒ) (superscript letter o)
U+02DA ˚ RING ABOVE (HTML ˚) (standalone)

U+030A ◌̊ COMBINING RING ABOVE (HTML ̊) (applied to a letter)

U+0325 ◌̥ COMBINING RING BELOW (HTML ̥) (applied to a letter)
U+0366 ◌ COMBINING LATIN SMALL LETTER O (HTML ͦ) (applied to a letter)

U+309C ゜ KATAKANA-HIRAGANA SEMI-VOICED SOUND MARK (HTML ゜) (standalone)

U+309A ◌ COMBINING KATAKANA-HIRAGANA SEMI-VOICED SOUND MARK

(HTML ゚) (applied to a letter)
(precomposed characters containing this mark also exists)
U+18DE ᣞ CANADIAN SYLLABICS FINAL SMALL RING (HTML ᣞ) (stand alone, typically
representing either ⟨w⟩ or ⟨y⟩)
(precomposed characters containing this mark also exists)
 U+2070 ⁰ SUPERSCRIPT ZERO (HTML ⁰)

U+2080 ₀ SUBSCRIPT ZERO (HTML ₀)

U+2218 ∘ RING OPERATOR (HTML ∘)
U+29B5 ⦵ CIRCLE WITH HORIZONTAL BAR (HTML ⦵) (used in superscripted form, ⦵,
to mean standard state (chemistry))
U+1BC85 DUPLOYAN AFFIX HIGH CIRCLE (HTML 𛲅)

U+1BC95 DUPLOYAN AFFIX LOW CIRCLE (HTML 𛲕)

U+26AC ⚬ MEDIUM SMALL WHITE CIRCLE (HTML ⚬)

Keyboard entry
Some computer keyboard layouts, such as the QWERTY layout as used in Italy, the QWERTZ layout as
used in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and the AZERTY layout as used in France and Belgium, have
the degree symbol available directly on a key. But the common keyboard layouts in English-speaking
countries do not include the degree sign, which then has to be input some other way. The method of
inputting depends on the operating system being used.

On the Colemak keyboard layout (Windows/Mac), one can press AltGr + \ followed by D to insert a
degree sign. On Linux, one can press AltGr + K twice to insert a degree sign.

Desktop OS

With Microsoft Windows, there are several ways to make the degree symbol:

One can type Alt + 2 4 8 or Alt + 0 1 7 6

Note: "0176" is different from "176"; Alt + 1 7 6 produces the light shade (░) character.
Note: The NumLock must be set first; on full size keyboards, the numeric keypad must be
used; on laptops without a numerical keypad, the virtual numeric keypad must be used (often
requiring that the Fn key be held down as the numeric sequence is typed).
The Character Map tool also may be used to obtain a graphical menu of symbols.
The US-International English keyboard layout creates the degree symbol with
AltGr + ⇧ Shift + ;

In the classic Mac OS and macOS operating systems, the degree symbol can be entered by typing
⌥ Opt + ⇧ Shift + 8 . One can also use the Mac OS character palette,[8] which is available in many
programs by selecting Special Characters from the Edit Menu, or from the 'Input Menu' (flag) icon on the
menu bar (enabled in the International section of the System Preferences).[9]

In Linux operating systems such as Ubuntu, this symbol may be entered via the Compose key followed by
o , o . Some keyboard layouts display this symbol upon pressing AltGr + ⇧ Shift + 0 (once or twice,
depending on specific keyboard layout), and, in programs created by GTK+, one can enter Unicode
characters in any text entry field by first pressing Ctrl + ⇧ Shift + U + Unicode code point , regardless of
keyboard layout. For the degree symbol, this is done by entering Ctrl + ⇧ Shift + U B 0 (where the last
key is the number zero) followed by a space.

For Chrome OS, use the Unicode entry method Ctrl + ⇧ Shift + U then 0 0 B 0 then space or return;
with the UK extended layout, use AltGr + ⇧ Shift + 0 .
Mobile OS

In iOS, the degree symbol is accessed by pressing and holding 0 and dragging a finger to the degree
symbol. This procedure is the same as entering diacritics on other characters.

In Android, switch to numbers ?123 then symbols =\< . The degrees symbol is found on the second row.

Software-specific

In Microsoft Office and similar programs, there is often also an Insert menu with an Insert Symbol or
Symbol command that brings up a graphical palette of symbols to insert, including the degree symbol. In
WordPerfect, pressing Ctrl + W + brings up lists of special characters. The character map is usually sorted
as per the unicode tables, so sixteen characters horizontally (0–F); this may vary from system to system,
though. An easier way is to simply enter the hexadecimal value and press Alt + X ; if the characters
touching the Unicode number is any digit or the letters A–F, make sure there is a space before pressing
Alt + X . Example: "At 71[insert space]b0 Alt + X [remove space before symbol] N, temperatures can get
frigid."

In LaTeX, the packages gensymb and textcomp provide the commands \degree and \textdegree,
respectively. In the absence of these packages one can write the degree symbol as ^{\circ} in math
mode. In other words, it is written as the empty circle glyph \circ as a superscript.

See also
List of typographical symbols
Prime (symbol)
Question mark
Unicode Geometric Shapes

References
1. "Chord Symbols" (http://musictheoryblog.blogspot.com/2007/02/chord-symbols.html).
Retrieved 2013-12-16.
2. *Cajori, Florian (1993) [1928-1929], A History of Mathematical Notations (https://archive.org/de
tails/historyofmathema00cajo_0), Dover Publications, ISBN 0-486-67766-4 |page=216
3. The International System of Units (http://www.bipm.org/utils/common/pdf/si_brochure_8_en.pd
f) (PDF) (8th ed.), Bureau International des Poids et Mesures, 2006
4. Style Manual (http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=2008_style_manua
l&docid=f:chapter10.pdf) (PDF) (30th ed.), United States Government Printing Office, 2008
5. 9.16 Abbreviations and symbols, Chicago Manual of Style (http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.or
g/16/ch09/ch09_sec016.html) (15th ed.), University of Chicago, 2010
6. 10.52 Miscellaneous technical abbreviations, Chicago Manual of Style (http://www.chicagoman
ualofstyle.org/16/ch10/ch10_sec052.html) (15th ed.), University of Chicago, 2010
7. UCAR, UCAR Communications Style Guide (http://www.ucar.edu/communications/styleguide/
d.shtml), retrieved 2007-09-01
8. "How to use emoji, accents and symbols on your Mac" (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1518).
apple.com. January 29, 2020. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
9. "(unknown title)" (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.4/en/mh2211.html).
apple.com.
External links
Earliest Uses of Symbols from Geometry (http://jeff560.tripod.com/geometry.html)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Degree_symbol&oldid=951195659"

This page was last edited on 15 April 2020, at 23:51 (UTC).

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