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temperature (mander.xyz)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 212 points 8 months ago (82 children)

Americans always regurgite the "Fahrenheit is how people feel" nonsense, but it is just that: nonsense. Americans are familiar with fahrenheit so they think that it is more inituitive than other systems, but unsurprisingly people who are used to celsius have no problems using it to measure "how people feel" and will think it is a very inituitive system.

[+] [email protected] -24 points 8 months ago (28 children)

It is really easy to map onto human feel though. 0-100 pretty accurately maps onto our minimum and maximum realistically survivable temps, long-term, and the middle temperatures of those are the most comfortable. It's far more round, when it comes to describing human preference and survivability, than Celsius is.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

I bet a lot more people know what 0°C feels like than 0°F. One is freezing point, one is a completely arbitrary temperature which only gets called "the lowest you'll experience" as a post hoc rationalisation of Fahrenheit. Most people will never experience anything that cold, some people experience colder.

I even bet more people know what 100°C feels like than 100°F. One is accidentally getting scalded by boiling water, the other is a completely arbitrary temperature which is quite hot but not even the hottest you'll experience in America.

[+] [email protected] -13 points 8 months ago (2 children)

boiling water isnt necessarily 100c. if youre boiling water, it can be any arbitrary temperature above 100.

thats like going to a geyser pit and saying thats 100c, when it isnt. when you cook and let water come to a boil, the chef doesnt care that its exactly 100c, only that its in the state above 100.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

If anything it'll be below 100 due to altitude. For example salt water for making pasta boils still at approx 100 deg. C. It takes quite a lot of salt (way more than you would ever want to consume) to meaningfully raise the boiling point.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

if youre boiling water, it can be any arbitrary temperature above 100.

That's not how boiling works. The water heats up to its boiling point where it stops and boils. While boiling the temperature does not increase, it stays exactly at the boiling point. This is called "Latent Heat", at its boiling point water will absorb heat without increasing in temperature until it has absorbed enough for its phase to change.

There is an exception to this called superheating

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