You are viewing a single thread.
View all comments
-3 points
*

But really it is much better for human temperatures.

It’s just intuitive, 0F is 100% cold, and 100F is 100% hot.

When the dry bulb gets above 100F, wind only cools you down by sweat evaporation, and when the wet bulb gets above 100F, even that can’t cool you down, and you will die if you don’t get to a cooler or drier environment.

permalink
report
reply
1 point

Is 50°F 50% cold or 50% hot?

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point
*

Lol, 0F is not 100% cold. That is barely cold unless you live in very warm place like tropic or something

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

Do you live in northern canada?

permalink
report
parent
reply
0 points

People do live outside of North America. I know that must be news to you, but it is the truth.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Europe

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

0F is 100% cold, and 100F is 100% hot.

So 50% is perfect temperature, no?

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

How is 0F 100% cold though, most places will never get that cold, so it surely makes more sense to have 0F at freezing point of water and 100F at 38C?

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Freezing point of pure water - but saltwater/brine freezes as a different temperature.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

pure water at mean atmosphere pressure at sea level if we’re getting technical, but frankly human body temperature varies from 35.5C (95.9F) to 37.5C (99.5F) anyway, and that’s before considering when people are ill, so if we go down that route it falls apart quickly enough that the definition of 100 given above is clearly just as arbitrary

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

Not to mention negative numbers.

permalink
report
parent
reply
28 points

“Intuitive” is a meaningless metric for a single scaled number. Whichever system you are used to will be the more “intuitive”.

Also, climate can play into which system feels more useful. Where I live, 100F occurs only rarely (and since air conditioning is almost ubiquitous, not something I’d bother looking out for), while 0C is an outdoor temperature that I do need to be aware of for half the year.

permalink
report
parent
reply
-4 points

I disagree that either would be just as intuitive. Fahrenheit being 0=cold and 100=hot is intuitive because there are a lot of things we do in the world that exist on a scale of 0 - 100. Percentages, just off the bat. Also, fahrenheit has a higher degree of fidelity in the temperature range that we use.

Celsius’s general temperature scale is like -10 - 40 which is absolutely not intuitive because it doesn’t look like any other scale we use as humans. I agree that we get used to Celsius fast and it’s a fine it’s not like it’s super confusing (and Celsius is so much more useful scientifically).

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

“cold” and “hot” are completely non-descriptive and useless parameters for your supposed “intuitive” system.

permalink
report
parent
reply
-8 points

It has only been 100°F once in the last century. Nobody has any point of reference to make this intuitive. 30°C/85°F is defined as hot around here. 40°C/100°F is defined as national emergency.

permalink
report
parent
reply
12 points
*

Which system did you grow up with? Because I grew up from the start with Celsius und it is 100% intuitive to me. Everytime you americans use your funny temperature numbers I have to stop and use a tool for transforming it or I simply ignore it and go “low means cold and high means hot, how high? Ain’t nobody got time for dat!”

So I disagree with your notion that Fahrenheit is intuitive. The system you grew up with and have multiple experiences as reference points for, is the system you feel is intuitive is also my opinion.

permalink
report
parent
reply
7 points

I love it when it’s -10% hot in winter nights or 110% hot around the equator. Makes perfect sense.

permalink
report
parent
reply
0 points
*

Yes, it does, actually, if you understand how thermal energy works.

permalink
report
parent
reply
-1 points

Yes, it does a better job of impressing that is all of the hot (or cold), and then 10% more than the difference between 38 and 43

permalink
report
parent
reply
6 points

Any of the systems is better if you have an intuitive understanding of it. I don’t know what 107 F would feel like, just as you don’t know what 42°C feels like. But it’s not a thing where one is inherently better than the other…

permalink
report
parent
reply

Science Memes

!science_memes@mander.xyz

Create post

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don’t throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

Community stats

  • 10K

    Monthly active users

  • 3.2K

    Posts

  • 51K

    Comments