How can a degree symbol be typed in on a default US keyboard?

Answer 1

On a Mac: Alt-Shift-8 (i.e. hold down the Alt and Shift keys while typing 8).

On Windows: Hold down Alt, then type 0176 on the number keypad to the right of the QWERTY keys.

Thus: The boiling point of pure water is 100 °C.

NB. The keyboard shortcuts Alt-0 on the Mac and Alt-0186 in Windows, do not produce the degree symbol °, but the masculine ordinal indicator º. This symbol is essentially a superscript lower case letter O, whereas the degree symbol is a perfect circle. The two are visibly different. Thus: °º.

This symbol is correctly used in the numerical abbreviation of ordinal numbers such as "first, second, third" in Italian, Portuguese and Spanish when the word is agreeing with a masculine noun, in the same way that English uses 1st, 2nd, 3rd. It should not be used as a degree symbol. Thus: in Italian, primo, meaning "first" (masculine) is abbreviated as 1º, secondo("second") is 2º, etc.

Answer 2

If you are using a PC, you can access it by going to the Character Map. Take a look at the characters, when you find the degree symbol, single click on it. This will give you the code you need to enter in order to have the symbol placed in your document. It has been a long time since I've seen the symbol on the keyboard itself. For my computer system, the code is Alt + 0176. When you press those keys ° is printed on the page you are typing. Ex: The temperature was -2° overnight.

Answer 3

In Windows, one needs to go to Start - All Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Character Map. This will bring up a window with many different characters. One should locate the degree symbol, click Select, and then click Copy. One can then Paste the symbol wherever one wishes. On a Mac, this can be done by pressing the following buttons at the same time: Command, Option, T.