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submitted 2 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

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[+] Bongles@lemm.ee -23 points 2 months ago

If Fahrenheit is “how people feel” then why are feet useful measurements of height when 90% of people are between 4ft and 6ft?

Those are two different things. Hope this helps.

[-] shinratdr@lemmy.ca 24 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

It doesn’t help at all, it’s being intentionally obtuse. You know what I mean, it’s unhelpful to pretend otherwise and pick a fight over it.

[-] KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com -2 points 2 months ago

i still don't see how this is intentionally obtuse, feet are a mid point between inches and yards, it just makes sense to break down things over a certain amount to a much more palatable scale. Everyone knows roughly what 1 ft is, and everyone knows roughly what 1 inch is. Paired together you can get a pretty rough and accurate guesstimate of height. I feel like it's also pretty expected for it to be within the range of 4-6 ft. Most people don't really measure feet outside of that range, unless you're doing construction.

humans are a comparatively arbitrary height so i feel like you're just complaining about the height of humans being weirdly arbitrary? Out of all the systems you could use for height, ft and in is pretty well tuned to the human nature, you're not gonna do much better.

[-] Bongles@lemm.ee -2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

If an argument is being made for one thing, Fahrenheit, it's not relevant to bring up a different thing. Why is feet a useful measurement? Maybe it's not, we're talking about temperature.

[-] WarlordSdocy@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Yeah like the metric system has good arguments for why it's measurements and weights are better, mainly conversion being easier, but for temperature there really isn't an argument. I would make an argument for Fahrenheit as it gives more precision without having to use decimals which at least in America isn't a thing for temperature. But those are pretty minor things and I do tend to agree it comes down to what you grew up with.

[-] uienia@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

without having to use decimals

This fear of decimals is a strictly American thing. Celsius achieves more precision with decimals than fahrenheit without decimals. And this American fear of decimals is pretty funny, considering you will happily do advanced fractions as soon as you are doing length measurements.

[-] WarlordSdocy@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

I don't mind decimals at all, it's more that I don't trust companies to actually deal with supporting decimals when making the switch. Plus the last time I discussed this on Lemmy someone was saying that decimals aren't even universally used and it might depend on what you get whether you get that precision or not. Either way like the main point of my post was anyways these are minor arguments and at the end of the day there isn't really a reason to use Celsius vs Fahrenheit.

[-] psud@aussie.zone 1 points 2 months ago

Can you feel the difference between 23.5° and 24? I can't. You don't often need precision to tenths.

In Australia most weather providers give you whole degrees, the bureau of meteorology gives you to one decimal in reports and whole degrees in forecasts

My coffee and beer boilers can hit high precision temperatures to variously 0.1° or 0.5° precision. The beer boiler gives 3 digits - hundredths below 10°, tenths below 100°, whole numbers 100° and over

You can choose the precision of thermometers you wish to buy for yourself

I have seen fahrenheit thermometers which are hard to read to better precision than 5 degrees