- Khrux ( @Khrux@ttrpg.network ) English85•11 months ago
I’m not sure I agree with the take for farenheit. It’s an arbitraty choice, and to me who grew up in a country that uses celsius, I find that far easier to understand and farenheit may as well be random numbers to me.
- Zink ( @Zink@programming.dev ) English28•11 months ago
Whatever your grew up with will always seem more intuitive for most people. But given that I grew up with Fahrenheit, the whole “0 is cold as fuck, 100 is hot as fuck” thing works for me.
- PancakeLegend ( @PancakeLegend@mander.xyz ) English36•10 months ago
Farenheit is asking Americans how hot they feel.
- Zink ( @Zink@programming.dev ) English4•10 months ago
Yeah, pretty much. I figured it was probably implied that I’m in the states. :)
I mean, SI units are objectively the best, and align with metric in most cases, but my brain is conditioned to accept Fahrenheit and miles per hour natively. Celsius and km/h have to go through an interpreter to convert them.
I have to say though, km/h has that “0 to 100” thing going for it that Fahrenheit does. 100 isn’t the fastest you’ll go, but it’s a typical highway speed.
- Zorque ( @Zorque@kbin.social ) 24•10 months ago
“I grew up with a completely different scale, so this scale makes no sense to me!”
Well no fucking shit.
- Khrux ( @Khrux@ttrpg.network ) English13•10 months ago
I was trying to be polite as to not trigger Americans which generally happens when you critique Imperial measurements. The post makes no sense to me as it assumes that Farenheit is correct for humans to communicate temperature. The post should read.
Celcius is basically asking water and most humans how hot they feel, Kelvin is basically asking atoms how hot they feel and Farenheit is basically asking me how hot it feels because I didn’t learn the others.
- AItoothbrush ( @AI_toothbrush@lemmy.zip ) English13•11 months ago
I know someone who knows both “natively” and celsius is much more logical to them because 1. kelvin has the same steps as celsius so for any science its much easier 2. freezing is 0 celsius so for weather(the thing you use temperature most commonly for) its really useful. Same with cooking.
- Margot Robbie ( @MargotRobbie@lemm.ee ) English11•11 months ago
Fahrenheit was not an entirely arbitrary choice: it was defined based on two points of reference that could be measured at the time: the freezing temperature of an ammonium chloride brine is used as 0, and the best estimate for the average human body temperature is set at 96.
Over time, as the freezing point and boiling point of water at sea level atmospheric pressure proves to be more accurate reference points, the Fahrenheit scale was adjusted to provide exact conversion to Celsius.
- rainynight65 ( @rainynight65@feddit.de ) English8•10 months ago
Are you telling me they were able to measure those things, but not the boiling and freezing point of water?
Sure, let me just whip up that ammonium chloride mixture and travel somewhere where I can get it close to freezing so I can know the zero reference of that scale. What, did the just carry that NH₄Cl around for convenience?
Fahrenheit was proposed in 1724, Celsius dates back to 1742, so there wasn’t that much time between the two.
- Margot Robbie ( @MargotRobbie@lemm.ee ) English8•10 months ago
Boiling point of water varies based on atmospheric pressure, water boils at a lower temperature high up in the mountains, for example, which could be why the estimated human body temperature is set as a standard, because it is consistent to reproduce as long as there are people around.
The freezing point of water is not affected by atmospheric pressure, however, it is affected by dissolved material in the water. Using a saturate solution of a salt would establish that consistency as well as lower the freezing point to create a bigger temperature range.
- iturnedintoanewt ( @iturnedintoanewt@lemm.ee ) English7•10 months ago
…96? How is 96 a point of reference when you are making a scale from scratch?
- Margot Robbie ( @MargotRobbie@lemm.ee ) English7•10 months ago
I think it’s because 96 is divisible by 3.
- Jolteon ( @Jolteon@lemmy.zip ) English5•10 months ago
96 is divisible by 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8
- photonic_sorcerer ( @photonic_sorcerer@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) English3•10 months ago
100 is divisible by 5, so what’s your point?
- ℛ𝒶𝓋ℯ𝓃 ( @name_NULL111653@pawb.social ) English2•10 months ago
Easier to subdivide a physically measured scale when the reverence is divisible by multiple values to choose from…
- Cawifre ( @cawifre@beehaw.org ) English11•11 months ago
It makes sense that you find the system you grew up with to be more intuitive, but I grew up with fahrenheit, and I think you’ve misunderstood the assertion a little bit.
The older observation that this meme is riffing off of is that 100°C is the point at which water stops being sloshy and starts being steamy, whereas 100°F is the (much fuzzier) point at which humans stop moving around and start decomposing.
The Kelvin addition muddies things because 100K isn’t really significant.
- Kusimulkku ( @Kusimulkku@lemm.ee ) English1•11 months ago
But there’s numbers below 0 and beyond 100. I don’t know why some are so focused on just those two points
- TheOakTree ( @TheOakTree@lemm.ee ) English4•11 months ago
I feel like 0-100F encompasses most living temperatures in the USA. It’s also a cleaner scale (in terms of human-comfortable temperatures) than 32 to 37.779 in that regard. 0F is the temperature where humans need to make sure they aren’t wet and make sure their drinking water isn’t left outside. 100F is the temperature where we need to be worrying about heat stroke and accelerated dehydration.
So, making this human-intuitive scale of temperatures a 0-100 range makes it easier to understand for a layperson.
- Kusimulkku ( @Kusimulkku@lemm.ee ) English3•11 months ago
in the USA
Well there’s a bit of a problem with that one…
It’s also a cleaner scale (in terms of human-comfortable temperatures) than 32 to 37.779 in that regard.
Cleaner…?
- anguo ( @anguo@lemmy.ca ) English3•10 months ago
32 to 37.779? You just converted 0C to F (backwards) and 100F to Celsius…
0F is way lower than the temperature water freezes at (32F). Water freezes at 0C.
Comfortable temperatures are between 22C and 27C, let’s say, which converts roughly to 72F to 80F. None of these are “more intuitive” than the other.
If I see ice, I know it’s below 0C. If water boils in my pot, I know it reached a temperature close to 100C. Fahrenheit on the other hand is based on completely arbitrary points.
- TheOakTree ( @TheOakTree@lemm.ee ) English3•10 months ago
Lmao I’m so dumb, I was very tired and wrote this in a state of “brain please wake up” limbo.
Point still stands, just 0 to 100 and -17.777 to -37.778
- anguo ( @anguo@lemmy.ca ) English2•10 months ago
Your brain must still be a little tired, because why on earth would you think we would use Fahrenheit’s 0 and 100 as a basis for anything in Celsius?
I could say the same thing backwards: 0 to 100 C is 32 to 212 F.
The only reason there aren’t weird decimals there, is because Fahrenheit was later adjusted to have whole numbers at those same (water based) temperatures.
- happyhippo ( @happyhippo@feddit.it ) English8•10 months ago
Same.
Not to mention that the 0-100 range thingy really depends on local conditions. I mean, depending on where you live, there are parts of the scale you’ll never use.
I’ve never in my entire life lived in a place where the lowest temp got anything close to 0°F.
My range of values is more -5°C - 45°C, or 23F - 113F.
23F for me is already fucking cold, and 100F is nowhere near fucking hot anymore (thank the entire humanity for climate change).
So whichever scale, for me they’re still just a bunch of numbers. But at least Celsius is used in “science, bitch!”
- imasnyper ( @imasnyper@lemmy.ca ) English7•10 months ago
I grew up in Canada, but in a temperate climate area on the border with the US. Winter? Use Celsius. Summer? Use Fahrenheit. For me Celsius makes a lot more sense right around 0C. After about 15C my brain switches over and starts using Fahrenheit. I like the Fahrenheit scale from 60-100F for gauging the summer months. The Celsius scale isn’t granular enough. It feels like there’s a big difference between 18C and 22C versus the comparable 64F-72F. But I also was taught early a quick and dirty conversion. C to F, double and add 30. F to C subtract 30 and divide by 2.
- Dem Bosain ( @DemBoSain@midwest.social ) English3•10 months ago
Does maple syrup ferment? Have you had old maple syrup recently?
Is it good?
- imasnyper ( @imasnyper@lemmy.ca ) English3•10 months ago
Maple syrup literally flows through my veins. My pet polar bear and attack geese protect my vast syrup empire. Headquarters is obviously my igloo.
- A2PKXG ( @A2PKXG@feddit.de ) English3•10 months ago
Celsius temperature are often given in steps of 0.5. for temperature records in summer the news report it down to an accuracy of 0.1
- imasnyper ( @imasnyper@lemmy.ca ) English3•10 months ago
Sure, but my point is 1 step in degrees Fahrenheit, to me at least, is more intuitive than subdividing 1 degree Celsius to get the granularity needed.
- Damaskox ( @Damaskox@kbin.social ) 6•10 months ago
Which countries/cultures even use Farenheit?
- joenforcer ( @joenforcer@midwest.social ) English9•10 months ago
The United States. We basically pretend that Celsius doesn’t exist in all applications of temperature. Weather, cooking… it’s all in Fahrenheit.
- Damaskox ( @Damaskox@kbin.social ) 3•10 months ago
Hah.
Forces me to think about metrics versus…imperial? - jadero ( @jadero@mander.xyz ) English1•10 months ago
And Canada, but we’re really messed up. Most people I know across multiple generations use Fahrenheit for indoor temperature, cooking, and water you might swim in. Celsius is for outdoor air temperature, mostly, I think, because that’s how weather is reported. There is a fair amount of variation, but I don’t think I’ve heard anyone using Celsius for cooking.
- MrSqueezles ( @MrSqueezles@lemm.ee ) English5•10 months ago
Fahrenheit measured human body temperature (which he thought was a constant) and called that 96 degrees. We now know normal body temperature is about 98.6 degrees F, but back then, his instruments weren’t as accurate. The number 96 was chosen for its divisibility. It has many divisors (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, 24, 32, 48, 96), making it easier to mark subdivisions on the thermometer.
It’s a scale partly defined by human body temperature, which is, I think, the point.
- GoodEye8 ( @GoodEye8@lemm.ee ) English2•10 months ago
There are many stories on how Fahrenheit came up with the scale, the body temperature one is just one of many. It’s no more true than the one where he took the Romero scale as baseline and multiplied it by 4 to get rid of the factorial.
- reminiscensdeus ( @reminiscensdeus@lemm.ee ) English4•10 months ago
A useful way to think about it (and I think what the OOP is saying) is to think about it as a scale from 0-100. Where 0 is like the coldest humans can deal with and 100 is the hottest humans can deal with. Obviously this isn’t strictly true (it gets to like 115 in death valley) but as an imperfect generalization it’s pretty useful.
- ILikeBoobies ( @ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca ) English2•10 months ago
Then 50 is the optimal temperature right?
With 80 being as uncomfortable as 20
- shea ( @shea@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) English1•10 months ago
oof great point, i didn’t think you could convince me to hate farenheit, i was ride or die for the imperial temperature measurement unit until right now
- ILikeBoobies ( @ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca ) English1•10 months ago
Nice sarcasm but I wasn’t telling you to hate it, just that your statement wasn’t logical
- shea ( @shea@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) English1•10 months ago
oh no that was sincere sorry. i really mean that you actually made a great point
- ILikeBoobies ( @ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca ) English3•10 months ago
Yeah it’s less human based than Celsius since humans survive equally on the sides of 0 (-40 to 40)
- doggle ( @doggle@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) English3•10 months ago
100 F is roughly a human’s body temp. (Actually 98.7 avg, but close anyway)
0 F is goddam cold. (This one’s pretty arbitrary ngl)
That probably isn’t very helpful.
Fwiw, Celsius isn’t much better if you didn’t grow up with it. 0 C is pretty cold, 100 C can give you severe scalds. The actual range the people will encounter in weather in their day-to-day lives is all over the place regardless.
Perhaps we are destined to stay divided
- Khrux ( @Khrux@ttrpg.network ) English6•10 months ago
I’m UK based and ~0°c to ~30°c (32-86f) covers 90% of the year for celcius. It’s still pretty unhelpful but I don’t think that feels any harder than using Farenheit in day to day use, I agree that it’s largely all arbitrary, but that’s as good of a reason to just use that one that’s scientifically useful too.