Submitted 3 weeks ago by subOrange@lemmy.world to showerthoughts@lemmy.world
Scientifically, Celsius has no more merit than Fahrenheit. Either use Kelvin on the daily or get off your high horse. Knowing 0C and 100C as important water temperatures isn’t special when your preferred air temperature is 24C, a value no more natural than 32F being the freezing point of water.
You get used to whatever system you use.
Even Kelvin is an arbitrary system. 0 being absolute 0 has a scientific basis but the size of the degree increments us arbitrary abd chosen based on the Celsius system
I would not agree that Fahrenheit is what is wrong with the USA but the jingoistic opposition to metricization is probably a symptom of delusional American exceptionalism, which does hit closer to the mark.
Fahrenheit was literally devised by a physicist, Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, a European, mind you.
It was based on physical properties, too. Originally 0 was the freezing point of a replicable water solution, and 96 was set at human body temperature (96 used as it made dividing a thermometer easier). It was later recalibrated to put boiling at 212, 180 degrees from freezing, but that’s the original basis.
There is no god-ordained rule that states that 0 has to be the freezing point of water, nor 100 the boiling point.
Fahrenheit also has an inherent advantage to Celsius in that for every 5 degrees C there are 9 degrees F. There is more inherent precision.
In metric, we aren’t scared of using a decimal if we have to. Our thermometers can be as precise as we need them.
Yet weather reports rarely include them.
My proposed compromise: we should have a system with 0 at freezing point but the same sized degree increments as Fahrenheit, so boiling point would be 180
One thing dumber than Americans still using Fahrenheit is non-Americans being obsessed with Americans still using Fahrenheit
Canada uses both systems. The temperature outside is reported in Celsius but my oven temperatures are in Fahrenheit
Celsius is based on water. 0ºC is freezing, 100ºC is boiling. Water is a good metric to go on, but it’s not very good for conveying to humans what is hot and what is cold, because even though we are made up of a lot of water, 0-100ºF is a scale that makes more sense to us. The equivalent in Celsius is something like -15 to something like 45ºC. And that makes less sense.
I’m a huge advocate of metric everywhere, but to say Celsius is objectively better than Fahrenheit is kind of silly.
Right, Celsius is not even part of the metric system. It is an honorary member of the SI units, but that doesn’t make it metric. It would make little sense to talk about kilo-degrees, or micro-degrees, because degrees Celsius doesn’t relate well to the amount of heat. That’s what Kelvin is for.
Kelvin is still rooted in Celsius, just by an offset of 273.15
Yawn.
Go back to whatever hole you crawled out of.
OK, you don’t like the US. That’s all you had to say.
And even THAT is tiresome. Get a new shtick.
We are literally made out of water, mate, that was the whole point: Celsius is based on the most important thing that keeps us alive.
Hot take: Zero should be at the point of maximum density, which is 3.98°C. That’s arguably one of its most important properties for the evolution of life as we know it.
So a justifiable and logical argument to how humans feel cold and heat in the temperature scale debate is selfish? 🧐
Not saying that I side with F over C or vise versa, but that’s a weird conclusion you’ve drawn.
So every time this debate comes out, there is always some sad Celsius fanboy that has to be all like, I need to remember the exact temperature my water boils at! It’s obvious that they just don’t know how to deal with the frustration of having to use decimals just to figure out what to wear.
This is why everything should be in Kelvin. 294 room temperature, water freezes at 273, boils at 373. Easy peasy numbers.
Shit yeah bro, where do I sign up for your UN?
The exact amount of times I have used decimals when deciding my choice of clothes is 0.00
Seems like I have pissed off many of you. Not my intention but not undesirable either.
If I had to guess, it’s probably less about pissing people off and more about your use of common logical fallacies (ex: straw man) and/or the click-baity title. If only there were an eye roll button you’d have been spared some of these folks’ opinions and down votes. But then I presume that’s the point – engagement.
I disagree with you but don’t worry about the downvoters. There is a certain subset of fediverse users who will downvote anything remotely against their views no matter how banal the statement is.
Fahrenheit is British ya Dingus.
He was a German scientist in Poland, actually.
But it came to the US by way of the British, therefore it’s British for the purposes of this.
Close.
Both systems are completely arbitrary. It’s weird that you would think using either would be a mark of selfishness.
It’s stupid that we still aren’t in the metric system.
I’m American and I use Celsius. I don’t talk to anyone about the weather so I use the one I like.
Meh, they could have picked basically any chemical element or molecule to base their freezing/melting/boiling temperatures around. In the case of Celsius, they chose water, H2O, at sea level, at Earth’s atmospheric pressure, to base their standard temperatures around.
A hypothetical standard temperature scale could just as well be made around iron in a vacuum with zero atmospheric pressure floating around in space with zero gravity, but that’s not very practical down here on Earth, and water is rather abundant on the planet (ok let’s not get into the whole pure vs saltwater thing, but you get my point).
Anyways, both Celsius and Fahrenheit are equally scientifically valid, as there’s a direct conversion formula to go from one to the other. Fahrenheit just seems easier to us in the states when thinking about the weather. 0 is fucking cold, 100 is fucking hot.
Not any element or anything, but water: that thing that makes up to 80% of our bodies and that without it, we couldn’t survive.
I did say molecule, right? Yes, yes I did. I specifically mentioned water, and the molecular form H2O.
Thanks for paying attention.
/s
I don’t think that argument is about using it for science experiments but for weather.
Who cares. If you have a hard time with numbers then just use your Celsius. It doesn’t matter.
Doesn’t Celsius use numbers?
Yes, that’s what’s causing all the issues in the Untied States. The gun violence. The fascism. The failure to prevent an unrepentant criminal from seizing power. The for-profit prisons incentivizing locking up the innocent. The thugs being sent into the streets to terrorize citizens. It’s all because of how temperature is measured.
blimthepixie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
That makes absolute zero sense
subOrange@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
It did to me in the shower.
mrnobody@reddthat.com 3 weeks ago
I think in your first paragraph, you meant Celsius? With the 0-100 comment.
Anyway, is not really being selfish, it’s that most people don’t know or don’t understand what they’ve not been taught, and an argument could be made that "it’s too difficult"to switch. Same reason we have MPH not Km/h, 12 inches = Foot vs CM or M. Or pounds (Lbs) not kilograms.
I would love to adopt that system as its more intuitive to understand.
I also like the argument of 13 months at 28 days each for a solid Sunday - Saturday approach. Yes, that only = 364 days, which leaves 1 extra each year plus leap year. I day those are called bonus days, where everything is truly shut down for a time to be together, rest, enjoy, etc. Don’t make it a big holiday where travel is involved as that requires fuel stations to remain open or grocery stores to operate. Anything like emergency services and whatnot get paid 3x holiday pay not just 2x.
OK one last thing. Fix the goddamn month names!!! Storyteller should be 7, October =8ty, etc. But somewhere along the lines I think we’re aged July and August so those got pushed out of sync two months and so December meaning 10 is more 12 lol. But we all go along with it because of tradition and history. Not stubbornness or selfishness.
FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
What was the water temperature?
givesomefucks@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Two things can be true.
What you said makes no logical or rational sense
You think it makes sense to you.
But all that tells us, is you don’t understand anything about what you’re talking about
ToiletFlushShowerScream@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
0K then.
Klear@quokk.au 3 weeks ago
Metric zero or imperial zero?
FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
0 Kelvin