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posted by martyb on Thursday July 27 2017, @06:49PM   Printer-friendly
from the There's-nothing-hotter-than-ITS-90 dept.

At face value, measuring the temperature using Celsius instead of Fahrenheit seems to make sense. After all, the freezing point of water in Celsius is a perfect 0 degrees C — not that inexplicable 32 degrees, as in Fahrenheit. Also, the boiling point of water in Celsius is right at 100 degrees (Okay, 99.98, but what's a couple hundredths of a degree among friends?), instead of the awkward 212 degrees Fahrenheit.

But Fahrenheit may be the best way to measure temperature after all. Why? Because most of us only care about air temperature, not water temperature.

Celsius is great for measuring the temperature of water. However, we're human beings who live on dry ground. As a result, it's best to use a temperature gauge that's suited to the air, as opposed to one that's best used for water. This is one reason why Fahrenheit is superior.

Fahrenheit is also more precise. The ambient temperature on most of the inhabited world ranges from -20 degrees Fahrenheit to 110 degrees Fahrenheit — a 130-degree range. On the Celsius scale, that range is from -28.8 degrees to 43.3 degrees — a 72.1-degree range. This means that you can get a more exact measurement of the air temperature using Fahrenheit because it uses almost twice the scale.

A precise reading of temperature is important to us because just a little variation can result in a perceivable level of discomfort. Most of us are people who are easily affected even by even slight changes in the thermometer, and the Fahrenheit scale is more sensitive to those changes.

It seems the author is saying that nobody uses fractions of degrees in day-to-day life, so Fahrenheit is a better scale because it has smaller increments. I'm not sold on this, because you'll get the same temperature variation within a room whether you set your air-conditioning system to 21°C or 70°F, and people will complain that they prefer the room to be a bit warmer/cooler/whatever.

Does anyone here have another reason for advocating the continued use of the Fahrenheit scale ?


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  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday July 27 2017, @07:57PM (6 children)

    by frojack (1554) on Thursday July 27 2017, @07:57PM (#545390) Journal

    Celsius / Fahrenheit Debate. Hold on a sec till I get the popcorn!!!

    So much of our number system is optimized for the 0-100 range

    Pretty much true.

    People don't deal well with decimals, until machines are handling the numbers.
    Humans deal best with one or two digit numbers they can carry in their head.
    One digit temperatures were too imprecise, three digits too much precision for every day use.

    Time, Money, Temperatures, Weights, and Volumes, virtually all everyday measurements, are all arbitrarily set up to accommodate this human limitation / preference.

    I maintain Neither scale was optimized. They just happened to choose two different and equally arbitrary start and end points.

    This concept of Fahrenheit's "precision" might make sense in an analog world. Once you go digital, there is no reason for the bias.
    There was only so much precision to be had with the tools THEN at hand OR in the human mind.

    Nobody worries about decimal places when dealing with temperatures in everyday life. Regardless of scale.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 27 2017, @08:03PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 27 2017, @08:03PM (#545395)

    > They just happened to choose two different and equally arbitrary start and end points.

    They're both defined by the melting point of ice and the boiling point of water.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 28 2017, @12:44AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 28 2017, @12:44AM (#545544)

    The only reason there's still an argument about this is because of snooty Eurotrash. Celsius is great for scientific research and the like, it's terrible for use by humans for weather.

    Celsius was defined based upon the range from frozen water ice to boiling water. Both are at sea level, so, if you're not at sea level the measures make little sense and it puts body temperature at an awkward point roughly midway between the two, but not really half way either, making it completely intuitive. People who live under the tyranny of the metric system eventually develop a feel for the temperatures, but they do it in spite of the way the system is laid out, not because of it.

    People judge temperature relative to their own body temperature when they don't have a thermometer. And they decide whether or not they're comfortable relative to their body temperature. Fahrenheit is great because it's relatively straightforward to compare body temperature to the ambient air temperature.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 28 2017, @04:07AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 28 2017, @04:07AM (#545597)

      So in F you have to remember a number for body temperature and then compare that number to the air temperature.
      But in C you have to remember a number for body temperature and then compare that number to the air temperature.

      Is it really that much easier to remember 98.6 vs 37?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 28 2017, @04:15PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 28 2017, @04:15PM (#545828)

        Regardless of what system of measure you use, you always compare back to body temperature when estimating temperature without instruments. What Fahrenheit does that Celsius gets wrong, is it puts the reference point in a place that's convenient.

        This whole BS about having to remember things comes up with the metric system all the time and it's not really our fault in America that people in other parts of the world have such bad memory.

    • (Score: 2) by ledow on Friday July 28 2017, @03:22PM (1 child)

      by ledow (5567) on Friday July 28 2017, @03:22PM (#545797) Homepage

      Gosh, how useless in everyday life to know that things freeze at about 0.

      Rather than 32.

      How useless in everyday life to know your body temperature should be around 37.

      Rather than 99 (and that extra degree can make a big difference).

      All these numbers are arbitrary in everyday life. Your coffee is about 95C or 198F, neither make any more sense than the other.

      However, when you come to apply it, Fahrenheit has almost no use scientifically except with other units that are even more outdated, underused, and unfamiliar.

      In everyday life, they are the same. Hundreds of countries cope just fine knowing nothing more than C, and absolutely nothing about F.
      In scientific life, the decision is made. Use SI units if you publish.

      If you are going to use one exclusively for science and for everyday life, C wins. Hands down. The decision was already made by the world.

      Any sort of random justification like yours is highly dubious to say the least (I can't say I even understand it, or how it's an advantage, to be honest).

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 28 2017, @04:23PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 28 2017, @04:23PM (#545832)

        It's not random, I'm just not an ill-educated hick that believes things that I don't understand.

        Most of what you said in this post is complete crap. There's no need for most people to know the boiling and freezing points of water. Most people just put things in the freezer until they're frozen solid or in a kettle until they boil. The specific temperature doesn't much matter. Which is probably why so few people use a thermometer in those cases.

        They go through life using Celsius because they were brought up using it and after a great deal of effort figured out how to relate it to their body temperature. But, claiming that this popularity makes it a better measure is rather ridiculous and it just furthers the view that you're not well-educated. Most of those countries use the metric system because they're not significant enough to have other measures available in the things they buy.

        BTW, you might want to look up the word hypocrite in the dictionary, because my justifications are far less random and dubious than yours are. I've used both systems and quite frankly Celsius is a huge mess for anything outside of the sciences.