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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: 2) by isostatic on Friday July 28 2017, @10:33AM
I'm told in UK land they don't have baking thermostatic controlled ovens like in the USA, so we set a thermostat to 325 to heat up a chicken taco casserole or WTF and believe it or not my stove is within 10 degrees usually. But in the UK they use "gas jet numbers" or some whackiness so my casserole would be gently warmed to just under browning temps using a gas jet #7a or WTF. Perhaps the UK coworker was pulling my leg (which probably means something else in the UK...) or perhaps he was a pitiful excuse for a chef, or maybe his weird story was true.
It certainly used to be that ovens used Gas Mark [wikipedia.org]. I saw one once at uni, the oven could be cheaper, it just controlled the flow of gas.
The ovens in the houses I've lived in aside from that have been thermostat controlled fan ovens. Set the temperature to 180, it goes on, after a while the light goes off, then goes on again later, keeping the temperature inside about the same. Most go upto 250.