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this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2024
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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.
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.
No it doesn't, unfortunately.
What makes 0F (-18C) special? How do you estimate survivability at such temperature? If I'd be out on the street naked, I would die there in a matter of minutes. At the same time, there is plenty of places where winter temperatures go -40F (-40C) and even below, yet people very much survive and live there.
Similar with 100F (38C). There are places with higher temps in the summer, up to 120F (49C) in some places, yet people survive. Still, if you're not equipped with anything, 100F (38C) will burn you alive.
All that not to mention that 50F (10C) is actually cold, not comfortable.
Fahrenheit is only intuitive and "feeling-descriptive" because you're used to it. From a person born in Celsius country, it's really not less intuitive. I know I can be comfortable in my birthday suit at around 25C. Less than 20 is chilly, less than 10 - cold, less than 0 - freezing. More than 30 is hot, more than 40 is deadly.
0F is the temperature a freezer needs to be to keep food fresh.
50F is the point that you can't survive without clothes, your body will not generate enough heat.
100F (38C) will not burn you alive. You can survive for a long time in a sauna at 200F.
100F is perfect hot tub temperature
Freezer normally operates at -4F
You can't survive without clothes at 55-60F, either.
100F will not burn you in an instant, but the comment went into long-term survival, and good luck surviving at that.
Not sure where you got -4F from.
USDA, United States Department of Agriculture, recommends 0°F or -17.8°C
100°F in the shade isn't extreme, and you'd be able to survive normally (With more water, everyone can use more water)
100°F is hot tub water
120°F is recommended hot tap water
140°F water will pretty much burn you instantly
Guess what, Canada sets the freezer at -15 Celsius. The USDA just chose 0F because it's good enough and a nice easy to remember number, there is nothing special about it.
Same with all your other numbers, your just using whatever the closest even F value is that's easy to remember there's nothing special about any of them and we have equivalents in Celsius
According to Canada.ca
Every 2 F is basically 1 C. You have more whole numbers with F.
Like -15°C is 5°F
6°F is -14.4444°C
-14°C is 6.8°F
So 5, 6, and 7°F are about equal to -15, -14.5, and -14°C.
And it's not just a random number. You know how much more energy would be used if everyone kept their freezer just a couple degrees colder? It's the optimum recommended temperature.
No it's random and arbitrary. Those couple degrees improve shelf life and allow for better extermination of many organisms, and higher temperature gradient allows the water to freeze faster, which is reflected in the quality of the product after thawing as it is less affected by wrongly formed and expanded ice. There is no "golden temperature", and so everyone flips it how they like it, and instead of what's actually right this is often dictated by convenience.
There are strong benefits to keeping your freezer at -80°C (-112°F), even, but at this point it crosses the line of practicality by both freezer cost and electricity consumption.
Also, the whole numbers argument is extemely weird. Like, do you know the difference between 71 and 72°F? Is it pronounced in any way? I can assure you, I cannot tell the difference between 21°C and 22°C. And where it actually matters (precise measurements etc.) you'll need decimals for both (and there's nothing wrong with them!)
The 120 and 140 don't make that much sense unfortunately.
90-110 is hand washing temp. 100 average.
110 is hot
120 recommend max
130 very hot
140 very very hot
150 burns
If I said to you. Would you stick your hand in 50°C water for 100 dollars would you do it?
What about 60°C?
65°C?
I bet you don't know what would happen if you stuck your hand in 65°C water without looking it up. There's a huge jump from 60° to 65°C. 70°C will instantly scald you.
Someone out there is stupid enough to think. Water boils at 100°C, 65 should be perfectly fine. Even though water doesn't boil until 212°, most people would be cautious of sticking their hand in 100°F+ water.
Yes if you think 40°C+ is hot then you can gather that 65°C would be hotter. But why compare to 40° when you can do 100°.
Why compare it to 40°? Because I know what 40° feels like because I've been living in a civilized country with a civilized measurement system all my life. I can tell you that 65° is too hot, because I make my tea with 70° to 80° hot water. Therefore just before that will probably be too hot for my skin.
In the end, there is no objectively better system when it comes to day to day temperatures. But there is one when it comes to science, reliability and universality and that is Celsius.
All international science uses metric and slowly but surely the resistance amongst US universities melts away and they switch to metric as well. Give it another one or two generations and we'll finally be rid of the outdated and arbitrary imperial system!
USA uses US Customary units, not Imperial units.
Fahrenheit is grouped with US Customary units but is not one.
I agree metric system is superior and there isn't a reason to use Inches, Feet, Yards, etc.
But Fahrenheit is a great system for weather and works great for everything else.
For science if I have to heat a beaker to 280° it doesn't matter if it's C or F. I'm not going to be able to relate to 280° in either system. The instrument is going to have to tell me the exact measurement.
Same with like a tape measure. I can measure out 3 meters. I don't need to know how long 3 meters is to do that.
However, mark two lines on a piece of paper and I will get closer guessing in inches than cm because I know the US customary units better.
Eventually US will change to metric. But I doubt we will ever not use Fahrenheit for normal day things like weather
I can absolutely tell 65°C is too hot, that's 5°C short of what is piped as literal hot water in the taps in my area.
I would not recommend going above 40°C for washing, and there is literally zero issue remembering that. Body temperature of a healthy human is 36,6-36,7°C (97,9-98,1°F), everything above that is hot.
As such, there is literally zero issue figuring 40°C is reasonably hot and 65°C is unreasonably hot, it doesn't take a genius.
Speaking of water, Celsius is obviously superior as a water-based system. I can easily tell temperature in my kettle goes to 100°C (212°F, huh?), or steps down to 90°C (194°F??) or 80°C (176°F??) to brew a perfect cup of tea. When temperature outside goes 0°C (32°F??), I know I can expect ice and snow. And for everything in between, I can make a pretty accurate approximation.
And finally, modern Fahrenheit scale is literally defined through Celsius. It's a scale that is defined as 32°F at the freezing point of water (i.e. 0°C) and 212°F at water boiling point (i.e. 100°C). You're literally using Celsius but make it harder for no reason.
Appreciate you. All I wanted was to have an interesting discussion. People in here acting like I shot the Pope.