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submitted 11 months ago by fastandcurious@lemmy.world to c/memes@lemmy.ml

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[+] Patches@sh.itjust.works -23 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Fahrenheit is the way to go.

Taking this opportunity to argue why Fahrenheit over Celsius makes way more sense. Fahrenheit is essentially based on a scale of 0 to 100, which is a scale we use for most things in life. Yes we can go below 0 or above 100, but it's such a perfect scale to understand exactly HOW hot or cold something is.

It's 70 degrees outside? Wow, we're at 70% heat. I bet that feels really nice and not too hot. Oh no it's 100 degrees so we're at 100% heat? Probably want to stay inside today. Water freezes once we get to 32%? Makes sense, that's pretty cold. I'll need to wear a winter coat. 0% outside? No way I want to go out in that.

In terms of understanding how how or cold it is outside, looking at the temperature as a number out of 100% is a perfect way of understanding that and having a frame of reference.

Celsius is so dumb. A 70 degree day in summer sounds great. 70% heat, not too hot, not too cold, just right. But convert that to Celsius? It's 21 degrees in the summer? What does that even mean? Stupid.

Also because of the way the math works, the scale for Celsius makes no sense. It's 0 degrees out in the U.S., that's -18 Celsius. But if it's 100 in the U.S., that's only 38 Celsius? What kind of stupid scale runs from -18 to 38? 0 to 100 is the way to go.

Imagine if test scores ran from -18 to 38. Would you support this nonsensical scale then?

To be clear, I'm on board with the metric system and I definitely don't think the U.S. does everything right. But Celsius is trash.

[-] arc@reddthat.com 8 points 11 months ago

I get where you're coming from cause you're used to F, so comparing it to C naturally keeps you thinking of F as baseline (would be the same for me the other way around). But saying that C aint on a 0-100 scale is just objectively wrong. At 0 C water freezes, at 100 C water boils. It's still a 0-100 scale, just based on something different. When it comes to metric vs imperial, it's an easy conclusion to me, when it comes to temperature I think it's more nuanced. I don't have a better explanation on the difference other than "F is human focused" while "C is science focused" (I know, doesn't quite cover it, just the best I got)

But then again, it really comes down to what you're used to feeling "right". For example, I could make similar conversions from C to F instead, and get weird numbers (water freezes at 32, and boils at 212? That makes no sense)

Never had too strong of an opinion on what temperature unit to use, but I will say this. C is a lot closer to K (kelvin) which is what is used for science, while converting F to K is a mess. So the one benefit C gives is a slightly easier time to get into that

I do need to let the nerd in me get this out too, F used to also be defined by water freezing/boiling. Meaning that technically C is a 0-100 scale, while F is a 32-212 scale. (Nowadays they're both defined by K, making this point kinda irrelevant)

[-] Patches@sh.itjust.works -1 points 11 months ago

But why do I care when Water Boils at Sea level? What am I to do with that knowledge in my day to day? The 0-100 is irrelevant to me.

I'm dead long before water boils. And I'm very uncomfortable below water freezing but it won't kill me quickly.

[-] illectrility@sh.itjust.works 8 points 11 months ago

Fahrenheit has one advantage here: You're used to it. If you're used to Celsius, you know that 25° is warm and 5° is cold and don't give a shit about it not being a 0-100 scale for that particular use case.

The 0-100 thing is pretty much the only argument I've ever heard in favor of Fahrenheit btw. Again, if you're used to one of them, that's the one that will make the most sense.

Being used to Celsius has the advantage of automatically being used to Kelvin. For example, if you ever want to calculate anything to do with the energy required to heat something to a certain temperature, you will have a way better time with Kelvin. Being used to and measuring in Celsius helps a lot here.

But sure, I get that you're used to Fahrenheit. It's just that the whole world has decided to use Celsius. Honestly, for good reason.