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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 ?
(Score: 1) by anotherblackhat on Thursday July 27 2017, @08:56PM (6 children)
Fahrenheit, Celsius, Kelvin, Rankine... They all fail.
The TPS scale is far better.
0 is absolute zero (-273.15 C)
500 is the triple point of pure water (0.01 C)
Normal outside temperature falls somewhere between 425 TPS and 575 TPS. (-40 to +40C)
Most things bake between 825 TPS (cookies) and 900 TPS (pizza).
TPS is great for three reasons;
The vast majority of temperatures we deal with are the same number of digits (three).
All those thermodynamic equations that involve multiplying the temperate actually work.
The two set points aren't dependent on an arbitrary pressure.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 27 2017, @09:19PM (1 child)
Emergency Michael Boffin Stoffard comment?
(Score: 1) by anotherblackhat on Thursday July 27 2017, @10:51PM
Even More BS.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 27 2017, @09:22PM (1 child)
Yeah, but those exact same benefits could apply to Kelvin (-170 to 730 C) or Rankine (-360 to 540F). The only benefit to TPS is you can explain where the unit size comes from other than by saying "for historical reasons, we define it as ..." -- we could certainly redefine the size of a Kelvin or a degree Rankine in terms of the triple point of water (or any other temperature point), rather than in terms of the distance between freezing and boiling points at some pressure.
(Score: 1) by anotherblackhat on Thursday July 27 2017, @11:06PM
Pretty sure Fahrenheit is defined as exactly Celsius * (9/5) + 32. I.e. its defined by the metric system.
Also pretty sure that Celsius is defined by absolute zero and the triple point of water, it's just that instead of absolute zero/triple point being 0 and 500, it's -273.15 and 0.01
Also pretty sure that virtually everyone agrees the article (and my TPS "suggestion" for that matter) is a bunch of BS click-bait.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 27 2017, @10:09PM
Another reason it's great is that every weather report is a TPS report.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 27 2017, @11:03PM
You need 550 F to cook "baked Alaska" and you normally need 600 F for an oven cleaning cycle.
An ideal temperature scale would describe one of those as 999, or perhaps 990 or 975 or 950. The other end is obviously absolute zero.
Rankine is pretty close and already established.