Abstract
The various aspects of the concept of temperature as a basic quantity in physics are discussed. After a brief historical introduction, the thermodynamic basis of the definition of temperature is given. In § 3 the statistical definition of temperature in terms of the canonical ensemble of statistical mechanics is presented and the equivalence with the thermodynamic definition is stressed. Attention is given also to the physical meaning of negative temperatures. In § 4 the realization of the thermodynamic temperature scale based on the laws of ideal gases, ideal paramagnetic and nuclear magnetic substances and black body radiation is discussed. The international practical temperature scale is very briefly discussed in § 5. Finally in § 6 some remarks are made about the "basic" character of temperature concept and it is stressed that proposals to change the definition of this quantity have so far not offered an improvement.
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