SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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: 3, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Thursday July 27 2017, @11:25PM (2 children)
The US is a messy half metric, half English nation. I've seen food labels announcing mg of salt per ounce of liquid. Milk comes in gallons, soft drinks in liters. Need SAE wrenches for classic cars, metric for modern cars.
I am used to F, and I find increments of 10F very convenient. 70F-79F is comfortable. 90F and above is too hot, and below 60F is too cold. Have to use increments of 5C for a rough equivalent, which is not as nice, though still quite workable. Then the comfortable temperature range is 20C-25C.
But if 0.5 and 5 are so bad, why don't we switch speedometers from mph to kph, and have all our speed limits divisible by 10 kph? And why not change all the mile markers on interstates to kilometer markers? Would cut down on having to give two or more exits the same number followed by 'A', 'B', and even 'C' to distinguish them. Actually a few interstates are marked in km. Think all the interstates in Alabama are km, which I find astonishing. Alabama is part of the deep south, notorious for being very conservative and backwards, yet they marked their interstates in km?? Then there's I19 in Arizona, which is marked in km, probably because it connects to Mexico and it may be more Mexicans than Americans use it.
(Score: 1) by WillR on Friday July 28 2017, @01:54PM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by Lester on Saturday July 29 2017, @11:24AM
And carat for gems. And year-ligths or UA in astronomy. And Horse Power in motors.
For historical reasons or convenience, some activities use certain units. No problem as long as everybody uses always the same unit. There are some problems when you cross the boundaries of the activity, but inside the activity it is consistent.
The same for Fharenheit. They are restricted to USA, as long as you don't cross its boundaries, it is consistent. The problem is that nowadays, with easy communications, geographic boundaries are crossed often. The Fharenheit are there for historical reasons, defending it in the grounds of convenience, they are better in anyway than celsius, is absurd.