this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2024
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[–] [email protected] 66 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (5 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 9 months ago

I know Fahrenheit has more degrees and that can give you more datapoints.

How do decimal places work?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (4 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago (4 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

19c, might be a bit too cold to wear shorts.

21c, shorts will be fine.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

+15 for shorts, or +10 if doing sports

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

7C I wear a hat, 9C my ears are fine

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

True, though this factor applies equally to both farenheit and celcius right?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

When I’m going to be I can absolutely feel 68 vs 70F

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Boiling water feels really fucking hot which is why Celsius makes more sense

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

I doff my cap to those whose experiences have led to the statement "boiling water feels really fucking hot".

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

0 fahrenheit is pretty much random when it comes to ordinary life. Well it's pretty random when it comes to anything.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

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)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (3 children)

As an American, I wish I could learn Celsius

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago

It's good to know how your gpu feels

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

C = (°F-32)/1.8