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https://www.zmescience.com/other/fahrenheit-vs-celsius-did-the-u-s-get-it-right-after-all/
At face value, measuring the temperature using Celsius instead of Fahrenheit seems to make a lot of face sense. After all, the freezing point of water is a perfect 0 degrees Celsius — not the inexplicable 32 degrees 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.
Celsius is also part of the much-praised metric system. It seems as though every developed country in the world has adopted the metric system except for the United States, which still clings to tge [sic] older, more traditional measurements. Finally, scientists prefer to use Celsius (when they're not using Kelvin, which is arguably the most awkward unit of measurement for temperature). If it's good enough for scientists, it should be good enough for everybody else, right?
Not necessarily. Fahrenheit may be the best way to measure temperature after all. Why? Because most of us only care about air temperature, not water temperature.
[...] 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.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 14 2021, @08:34PM (14 children)
Honestly, I think both the F and C scales used the freezing point of water, and both had to solve the problem of its variability with salt concentration.
C said, "Get rid of ALL the salt"
F said, "Get as much salt in as the water will hold"
Honestly the F answer seems the easier one as the C solution requires you to distil the water. That said, C is just a much simpler system now that we don't need to manually calibrate our instruments very often.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday September 14 2021, @08:39PM (3 children)
The F scale and C scale have the same sized increments as the R scale and K scale respectively.
The MIDI controller upchucks at the idea of an R or K scale but not an F or C scale.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Acabatag on Tuesday September 14 2021, @10:20PM
I love how on SN, even when the editors post a metric/imperial troll right on the front page, we denizens manage to turn it completely sideways.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 14 2021, @10:47PM (1 child)
And here I thought everyone had forgotten dear old Rankine.
(He is to Fahrenheit what Kelvin is to Celsius. -459.67 deg F is absolute zero 0 deg R )
Like Kelvin, he's mostly useful in chemical and thermodynamics calculations.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 15 2021, @02:07PM
It's used and loved by those that measure their angles in Grads.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 14 2021, @09:30PM
So you're saying F is useful for the Dead Sea and high-saline places, C is useful everywhere else.
For me the selling point of Celcius is that water generally turns to ice around zero. 32... what?? Simply works better in real life.
But why stop at water and salt? Or a single scale? I propose the EH scale - ethanol/humidity. On the X axis we have the degrees defined from zero where pure ethanol freezes, and 100 where it tuns to vapour. On the Y scale we have relative humidity as we don't just want to know how hot or cold it is, but how friendly or oppressive the air is in general. Think of Houston or Durban vs Arizona or Namibia. We then express the conditions as a complex number (340p,21h). Any takers? :)
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday September 14 2021, @11:32PM (8 children)
Simpler, yes. Better...well, it depends on what you're doing. Celsius is better for chemistry, Fahrenheit is better for room temperature. Similarly with Meter and inch/foot/yard. Which is better depends on what you're doing. For measuring cloth, yards are normally (slightly) better. For building a bookcase inches and feet are better. For designing a machine that needs to have parts spanning multiple scales, metric is better.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by c0lo on Wednesday September 15 2021, @12:12AM (6 children)
Say... what? My whole life experience seems to point to the opposite, I don't even know what a yard or foot is without googling for their value in metric.
At the shops I'm buying this stuff, they use meters and subdivisions, would look to strange if you ask them in other units (exception being hardware stores that may still keep imperial screws/threaded rods. But even for them their length is measured/displayed in metric).
Point: it highly depends in the culture you grew up. I never used any of the units you mentioned because nobody around use them, I'm having a hard time to see how they can be better. For the same reason, I suspect you will find them better than the metric... but we come to this nugget
Gee, thanks. Like, I'm going to buy materials to host a machine with dimensions in metric, but the length of timber are expressed in feet - how can dealing with two unit scales be better when I know from a lifelong practice one is enough?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday September 15 2021, @01:41PM (1 child)
Not entirely. Yeah, conversions are a bitch, but a bookcase is really built sized with cubits and hand spans, which translate better into feet and inches. The body is the basic unit of measure, from which meaning of all the other measures are derived. Yes, it's highly individualized and variable, which is why standard measures are needed for communication. And avoiding conversions is what the metric system is about. Unfortunately it's basic units aren't convenient sizes for a lot of things. So a pound is a unit of force, where a kilogram is a unit of mass. They don't really convert easily, though sloppy conversions are often "good enough".
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday September 15 2021, @02:20PM
Jamais couché avec.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 17 2021, @01:36PM
But it would be fun to enlighten them.
"Hello, I'd like a threaded rod"
"Sure, how long?"
"Three feet"
"Ahem, how long is that?"
"Let me explain. 437 feet is about as big as a baseball field. 2 million feet is about as wide as the state of Nebraska."
(Score: 2) by dry on Sunday September 19 2021, @03:55AM (2 children)
For carpentry, imperial is nice as it is easy to figure out halves, thirds and quarters. I live in a metric country (Canada) and the lumber yard is one of the few places that is still imperial.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday September 19 2021, @06:13AM (1 child)
Because 1.8m, 2.4m, 3.6m, 4.2m and 4.8m** a such a hassle to divide by 2, 3, 4.
** typical construction lumber lengths one gets at the hardware stores in Australia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by dry on Sunday September 19 2021, @06:24AM
Guess part of it is always dealing in imperial with lumber. Looking at your numbers, it takes a second to visualize.
(Score: 3, Informative) by hendrikboom on Wednesday September 15 2021, @09:58PM
I find C quite easy to use for room temperature.