Fuck Fahrenheit.
With Celsius it’s all nice and round numbers unlike the mess called fahrenheit:
0°C—black ice, snow, be careful on the road and you probably want to wear gloves and a hat
0…10°C—a bit chilly, but you can leave your hat home
10…20°C—pleasant, but not quite tee-and-shorts yet
20…30°C—nice summer weather
30…40°C—holy crap it’s hot!
40…50°C—are you fucking kidding me?
50+°C—my proteins are starting to denature…
100°C—good sauna
110°C—finns think it’s a good sauna
120+°C—finns think it’s getting a bit too hot in the sauna. Italians tend to vaporize in sauna (speaking from experience)
…
0…-10°C—a pleasant winter weather
-10…-20°C—getting a bit frosty
-20…-30°C—finns think it’s a pleasant winter weather
-40°C—vodka freezes. Russians and finns agree it’s getting a bit frosty
-50°C—getting a little hard to start your Uazik in the morning in Siberia due to engine oil solidifying
-60°C—researchers in Antarctica all agree it’s getting a bit frosty and someone should close the window-60c - Canadians consider putting on a hoodie
To be honest, a 10°C range is way too much variation for me to consider it as the same ‘category’ (at least in the 0°C ~ 40°C range). I say that as a Brazilian.
0-5 and 5-10 is more like it
Yeah, most people in Brazil do not think 20 is pleasant at all
For sure! At one point in winter I had to wear a second pair of pants to get through the day, and it was only in the 10°C range…
See that’s my issue with degrees C. It’s not as fine a measurement as degrees F. A difference of 5F is not terribly much, but it is noticeable. A difference of 5C is substantial (to me) and would make me very uncomfortable. So with F, I can know with more precision how uncomfortable I should expect to be :)
I mean, you can use decimals, but I understand your point.
OK, yeah, that’s fair…
Honestly, we all think fahrenheit would be better, but don’t tell the fucking americans or they’ll get a big head over it.
TLDR: something like 2C+50 has a use case for showing habitable temperatures with only 2 digits.
I only use metric units in my home on principle but I occasionally notice that temp displays with only 2 digits (such as on my watch and on the dash of my car) suffer some loss of resolution using C versus F, and there are a range of numbers (say, 50-99) that the display is capable of but will (hopefully) never be used.
I still use C regardless, so maybe this is useless kvetching, but I can see this being a use-case for a trans-temp scale, preferably not F but maybe something like 2C+50. That would allow only 2 digits to express most habitable temperatures within a couple standard deviations of the mean.
Kelvin is for scientists.
Celsius is for people.
Fahrenheit is a translation layer between Celsius and Americans. All their weather stations have been Celsius for ages, it’s a societal decision to use an arbitrary unit instead. The “69F censoring” which turned out to be a rounding artefact illustrated that nicely. Their government could change that, power to them that they decide not to 🤷♂️
fahrenheit is literally defined by celsius at this point, afaik celsius is literally the official standard of the united states but everyone just… keeps using fahrenheit anyways
There’s also no such thing as an inch. It’s defined by the meter, there isn’t an official yardstick.
The only reason the UK, Canada and USA used the same inch is because they needed to interchange parts for weapons and machines during WW1. Despite all thinking they used the same measurement system the definition had drifted between them. Metric was defined by enlightenment people with better methods of reproducing the standard. So it was easier to adopt a inch definition based on 25.4mm.
The UK and US inch only match because of WW1. The imperial volumes are still different.
By that logic, there’s also no such thing as a meter either. It’s defined as a distance light travels in a time interval proportional to the inverse of a frequency related to the caesium-133 atom. Definitions don’t mean there’s “no such thing” as something, it’s just a matter of if the units are useful in a given context. And meters are more useful in most everyday contexts.
In timekeeping, there are so called stratums to describe how correct a clock is.
Stratum 0 is a physical process, an inherent property of the universe. An atomic clock would be stratum 0.
Stratum 1 is a clock defined based on a stratum 0 clock. For example, GPS clocks are usually stratum 1, so are timeservers at universities with atomic clocks.
Stratum 2 is a clock defined based on a stratum 1 clock, for example, your router’s ntp server if it syncs its time based on gps or a university’s timeserver.
So if we adopt this jargon for units:
Meter is a stratum 1 unit, defined based on the stratum 0 properties of lightspeed and cesium resonance.
Inch is a stratum 2 unit, defined based on the stratum 1 meter.
The thing about Fahrenheit is kinda wrong. 0 is when salt water freezes, and 100 was supposedly measured by a woman’s body temperature when she was sick.
Yeah, the reason you can’t stop thinking about it is because it makes no sense but you insist it does so your brain can’t stop processing it, trying to figure it out, but every answer you come up with is crap and you know it. It’s called cognitive dissonance, you’re really not supposed to lean into it.
Converting from Fahrenheit to Celsius is quite easy. All you need to do is:
import math import random import time def obtain_temperature_scale(): temperature_scales = ["Fahrenheit", "Celsius", "Kelvin", "Rankine", "Réaumur", "Newton", "Delisle", "Rømer"] return random.choice(temperature_scales) def create_cryptic_prompts(): cryptic_prompts = [ "Unveil the hidden truth within the scorching embers.", "Decode the whispers of the arctic winds.", "Unravel the enigma of thermal equilibrium.", "Unlock the secrets of the thermometric realm." ] return random.choice(cryptic_prompts) def await_user_input(prompt): print(prompt) return float(input("Enter the temperature value: ")) def dramatic_pause(): print("Calculating...") time.sleep(random.uniform(1.5, 3.5)) def convert_to_celsius(fahrenheit): return (fahrenheit - 32) * (5/9) def main(): temperature_scale = obtain_temperature_scale() if temperature_scale == "Fahrenheit": cryptic_prompt = create_cryptic_prompts() fahrenheit_temp = await_user_input(cryptic_prompt) dramatic_pause() celsius_temp = convert_to_celsius(fahrenheit_temp) print(f"The temperature in Celsius is: {celsius_temp:.2f}°C") else: print("This program only accepts Fahrenheit temperatures.") if __name__ == "__main__": main()
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Water is not a molecule.
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Wait, but this doesn’t mean it’s A molecule, it has at least like three of them.
Also, water isn’t normally just H2O, but it contains more stuff. We still call that water.
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No, sorry, not trolling. I just think water is not A molecule, but a bunch of molecules, so I don’t know if technically a molecule of water would count as water.
I don’t understand the controversy, I didn’t mean to offend you.
I get what you are saying, it is unintuitive that you can call a water molecule water. Because water, when found in nature, is always a mixture, right? Needs more than a single substance to be a mixture.
Entertain this, though: a group with a single element is still a group.
Wouldn’t you say a pure water substance can be reduced to a single water molecule? It still is pure water substance.
You’re a molecule.
Ur mum’s a molecule.
Everything is a molecule at a certain level.
And even that level is molecular 🤯
Most heated post on Lemmy
At this point, there’s no harm in using Fahrenheit. We can convert it to celcius. But please use a sane date format.
No, your just used to Fahrenheit.
Honestly? I’ve only lived in countries with Celsius and Celsius is how I feel. I know exactly how hot or cold a day is gonna be if I look up the temperature. Thats how I know what clothes to wear!!! But Fahrenheit confuses the shit out of me. Every time I visit the US, I always convert the temp back to Celsius when someone tells me the temp.
I know Fahrenheit has more degrees and that can give you more datapoints. But cmon. The temp only goes up to, like, 50 C anyways lol. How many degrees do you need 🤣. Can you really differentiate between 61 and 62 F? Now, 60 to 65 F might be believable, but that’s like 15 to 18 C so, that much difference is shown even in Celsius.
I’m not saying Celsius is better, or that Americans should convert to it. Actually, if I was God-Emperor, I’d force us all to use Kelvin, given it begins with Absolute Zero and I’m a sucker for shit like that.
But variety is the spice of life. For Americans, Fahrenheit is how they feel. For most of the rest of us, it’s Celsius.
This came up a week ago. I made a chart:
Temps easily relatable conditions <0 throw boiling water up in the air to make it snow 0-10 dangerous freezing cold 10-20 bitter freezing cold 20-30 freezing cold 30-40 coat cold 50-60 jacket cool 60-70 cool 70-80 pleasant 80-90 warm 90-100 hot 100-110 too damn hot for my fat ass/fry an egg outside One of the conclusions on why I like Fahrenheit over Celsius for weather is it’s ironically the most base 10 like for a non-SI scale. A phrase like “it’s going to be in the 70s today” has so much information in it. Usually with no weather changes like a front coming in, you’ll know that during the day it’ll be pleasant. At night the temperature range will drop by around 10 degrees and you’ll know you’ll likely need a light jacket or at least long sleeves to stay comfortable.
If metric wanted to adopt a scale with more graduations that could be easily grouped to 10s, that’d be great. I don’t know why 0-100 was arbitrarily chosen to be the scale for water instead of 0-1000.
For temp measurements outside of weather I really do prefer Celsius though.
Ok but having not grown up with F I feel the same way about -20 to 40 °C, which you can divide into 5° bands with almost identical names.
but like we do the exact same thing with celsius, if you say "it’s gonna be about 15°C today then i know what to wear.
people don’t stand there doing maths to figure out what to wear, they intuitively learn what clothes go with what number.
As someone who grew up in the tropics and now lives somewhere colder, I went through the first three table entries thinking that this was Celsius and felt understood.
It’s more about the number range in ordinary use than the granularity.
Ordinary daily temperatures in F run from about 0-100. Numbers outside of this range are extreme weather.
Numbers outside of this range are extreme weather.
Hot Weather: This argument might have been valid like a century ago but it clearly hasn’t been valid for billions of people around the world (including parts of the US) that regularly sees temperature crossing 38 C (100 F) in the summer. This includes Middle East, Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia and I’m sure more places too.
Like, it’s not extreme if it’s expected every year. And I’m not taking 39 C. Where I lived, it reached 49 C (120 F) every single summer. That is summer.
Cold Weather: And this is also true for so many people around the world who live in places where temperature, every winter, goes below -18 C (0 F). Like, that’s not a billion people, but that’s still in the millions (Canada, Russia, Scandinavia etc.) We’d have to use the - sign every winter no matter which system we use, Celsius or Fahrenheit. Just like the billion+ people I talked about above.
People used to the Celsius system, especially those living in areas where it frequently goes below freezing, are well versed with the - symbol. We know the difference between -5 and -10 like we know between 0 and 5.
Again, Americans can keep their F and their LBs and their Miles and their every other unique charm. But it’s also funny when they try to prove that it’s somehow better or more natural. Like, it’s natural and rational to you.
People used to the Celsius system, especially those living in areas where it frequently goes below freezing, are well versed with the - symbol. We know the difference between -5 and -10 like we know between 0 and 5.
Looking at some of the literacy stats coming out of American education, I’m not surprised that some Americans think that the concept of a negative number is an undue inconvenience.
Are people even capable of accurately perceiving a difference of 1 or 2 degrees in either system? I’m putting on a jacket if it’s 9 or 7 celcius outside anyway. Struggling to think of any human day to day situations where a difference of a degree or two changes the way most people act or feel.
If you need granularity, you can still get infinite granularity with decimals in either system.
7C I wear a hat, 9C my ears are fine
the temperature also isn’t the only thing that matters, it also matters what the weather is like, how much moisture is in the air, and how windy it is.
With no wind you can have like -5°C and it’s perfectly fine if you just wear some fluffy clothing, but if the wind starts picking up it can be +5°C and you’ll feel like you’re going to die.
True, though this factor applies equally to both farenheit and celcius right?
19c, might be a bit too cold to wear shorts.
21c, shorts will be fine.
+15 for shorts, or +10 if doing sports
19 is too cold to wear shorts?
I’ll be back in an hour when i stop laughing.
Now that you have had a few minutes to laugh, please read my comment again, and notice that I wrote that 19c MIGHT be too cold to wear shorts, this obviously depends on other factors as well.
0 fahrenheit is pretty much random when it comes to ordinary life. Well it’s pretty random when it comes to anything.
Boiling water feels really fucking hot which is why Celsius makes more sense
I doff my cap to those whose experiences have led to the statement “boiling water feels really fucking hot”.
I’m not saying Celsius is better, or that Americans should convert to it.
I am. But first, metric mass, volume, and distance.
Signed,
An American (who doesn’t like fractions)As an American, I wish I could learn Celsius
you know how cold ice is, right? and you know how hot boiling water is.
Just interpolate between them. For some extra assistence, you get burns when in extended contact with something at 40°C, 20°C is a cool summer day, and the standard oven temperature is 200°C.
It’s good to know how your gpu feels
C = (°F-32)/1.8
I know Fahrenheit has more degrees and that can give you more datapoints.
How do decimal places work?
Most people are inherently biased towards their chosen system. A “water scale” doesn’t make sense to fahrenheit users, and a “human scale” is dismissed as even existing by the Celsius users. But hey, if you want to fight, have at it. It’s annoying and pointless, but that’s what the internet is for.
Did it never occur to you that Celsius is basically Kelvin with the zero point moved to human reference?
Human reference because >50% of our body is water. We are essentially water bags.
This is interesting but not really justified historically. Celsius predates the concept of absolute zero, and water is very important to our world, not just ourselves.
I was replying to a (now gone) post on how Kelvin is for science, Fahrenheit for humans ,and Celsius is useless. It should give a perspective how to get from Kelvin to Celsius, not give a wildly off-topic history lesson.
I’m honestly just so tired. Could I snap my fingers and have the US switch to metric units with everyone understanding them as intuitively as the units they grew up with, I would. I really don’t have an emotional attachment to what letter appears next to the temperature.
We couldn’t even stick the the unanimously popular bill to abolish DST. This issue is so much further down the list of priorities and yet so much more expensive to change that I don’t expect it to come up during my lifetime. To spend the next few decades arguing about it without any hope of a meaningful resolution sounds like my personal hell.
how do you calibrate a fahrenheit thermometer? With celsius it’s hilariously trivial, if the thermometer says it’s about 0 when you see water freeze, it’s correct enough for everyday use.
how do you calibrate a fahrenheit thermometer? With celsius it’s hilariously trivial, if the thermometer says it’s about 0 when you see water freeze, it’s correct enough for everyday use.
You do the exact same but use 32 degrees instead of zero. I know celsius is cool and good but most people seem incapable of understanding how its just fucking marks on a line and any non-sciencey advantage is pretty much null.
You put a normal Celsius thermometer next to it and apply maths.
I mean you can do the same with a Fahrenheit thermometer, just check that it reaches 32. Most anyone used to that scale knows 32 is the magic number.
“human scale” is dismissed as even existing by the Celsius users
Celsius user here.
I find “I’m more used to it, therefore it makes more intuitive sense to me” is a perfectly understandable argument.The problem with the human scale argument is that it makes it sound completely arbitrary.
To a human there is no objective difference between -1F, 0F or +1F. They are all about the same degree of “cold”.i mean a lot of measurements are arbitrary necause their manmade. thats creation of measurements in a nutshell. they exist to give people context to conpare to. time is a manmade construct, unit of length is a manmade construct. unit of weight is a manmade construct.
for instance with 1 kilo, tell me the last time a regular person had platinum-iridium ingot. its completely arbitrary.
Also when they describe their fahrenheit human scale it is “0 is really cold” and “100 is really hot”, which are subjective and not very informative gauges of anything.
Is there a difference between 19, 20, and 21 Celsius? It’s also pretty subtle. Yes, there’s a bigger difference than fahrenheit, but I’ve never cared regardless of scale down to what degree the temperature is. As a fahrenheit user, it’s always 10s. 0-10, 10-20, etc.
So either way the “human scale” idea is fucking dumb
Is there a difference between 19, 20, and 21 Celsius?
Yes, as anyone that’s ever worked in an office can tell you.
Is there a difference between 19, 20, and 21 Celsius?
First off, nobody claimed that Celsius is based on human perception so humans not being able to differentiate between these is simply irrelevant to the argument.
Second, the bounds of 0 and 100 are based on the freezing temp of water which are specific, non-arbitrary temperatures.I’m not arguing one system over the other, I just think the “human scale” argument has been made up just to have an argument.
Who uses Fahrenheit in a first world country?