Comment on Chirp in Fahrenheit

• Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  huh? how is the freezing point and boiling point of water made up? how is the temperature of the human body better in any way?

  The freezing and boiling points of water are by far the most logical reference points since anyone who wants to calibrate a thermometer will have access to water, and needs only go to the nearest ocean and bring some water to freezing and then boiling and making marks at each.

  Celsius is the precise opposite of random.

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  • DancingBear@midwest.social ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    They are both random and arbitrary. Using the human body as a standard is probably useful for medical purposes… using water as a standard is probably useful for other purposes…

    Considering temperature itself is dependent on other variables like atmosphere, any temerature system is going to be random and arbitrary…

    Kelvin at least has a theoretical bottom for the coldest something can get maybe? But still, Kelvin is also arbitrary because it uses Celsius as a standard, which is random and arbitrary…

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    • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      okay so yes you’re not serious and just trying to get a rise out of people, great to have that confirmed.

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      • DancingBear@midwest.social ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Not sure what you are talking about but ok I guess lol

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• Iunnrais@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I agree with you, except that I think the time system is great. It was deliberately designed to be maximally divisible, and makes a lot of sense in that manner. 12 hours of daylight— a highly divisible number, with 60 small (minuscule, or “minute”) divisions of the hour, which is even MORE divisible than 12. Then when time keeping got more accurate, they added a second division of 60 more parts, and… well, called ‘em seconds.

  Basically, 12 and 60 are just so divisible they make really good bases.

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  • DancingBear@midwest.social ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    That’s really interesting thanks

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• MrVilliam@sh.itjust.works ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Fahrenheit used the temperature of the human body to create his system, which makes a lot more sense than other systems.

  What is 0°F in terms of the human body? I’m guessing that 100°F is supposed to be a normal human body temperature, but in reality that will vary from person to person and everybody I’ve met is usually 97-99 unless they have a fever.
  In Celsius/Centigrade, 0° is the freezing point of water at 1 atmosphere of pressure, and 100° is the boiling point.
  In Kelvin, 0 is absolute zero, and it scales with Celsius/Centigrade because anchoring it to water just makes sense.

  Fahrenheit is fucking silly and people only defend it because it’s what they were familiar with growing up, so they teach the next generation the same thing, thus perpetuating the cycle of tradition for the sake of tradition.

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  • Crashumbc@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Actually both freezing and boiling vary depending on your altitude…

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  • DancingBear@midwest.social ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    From Wikipedia: ——————— Several accounts of how he originally defined his scale exist, but the original paper suggests the lower defining point, 0 °F, was established as the freezing temperature of a solution of brine made from a mixture of water, ice, and ammonium chloride (a salt).[2][3] The other limit established was his best estimate of the average human body temperature, originally set at 90 °F, then 96 °F (about 2.6 °F less than the modern value due to a later redefinition of the scale).[2] ———-

    Any measurement of temperature is going to be relative to the atmospheric pressure among other variables… I’m not a scientist but Celsius is just as random… it may make more sense because freezing water and boiling water make sense to you with a refrigerator and stove… for most of human history this would not have made any sense……

    There’s uses of metric that make a lot more sense, it is not my intention to defend imperial systems of measurement or whatever they are called, it is interesting to me though….

    What are the measurements we can define where if we met a completely alien race from another solar system where we could immediately agree on the system… that’s probably the best one lol

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    • quediuspayu@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      About the maximum temperature.

      www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHyctwgE6m4

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    • Neverclear@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      There is a theoretical max temperature, the Planck Temperature ≈ 1.416 x 10^42 K. It’s the temperature at which the wavelength of emitted light is the Planck length.

      Basically, a system at planck temperature probably would consist of many tiny black holes, and adding energy to said system would create a larger black hole, thereby lowering the temperature.

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      • stevedice@sh.itjust.works ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        That sounds like a misconception based on the misconception that the Planck Distance is the smallest distance possible. Admittedly, I dropped out of physics 10 years ago so I might have no idea what I’m talking about.

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      • DancingBear@midwest.social ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Woooooah, man, but what if you put some weeeed in there man….

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