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[–] 14 points 3 years ago (19 children)

American temperatures really never do stop sounding ridiculous.

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  • [+] -7 points 3 years ago (18 children)

    The Fahrenheit scale actually makes a lot of sense, unlike some other us units

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    Why don't we just ditch both and use Kelvin instead

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    Nah let's combine Freedom and Kelvin and use Rankine for even further confusion.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (13 children)
  • [+] 4 points 3 years ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)
  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    Celsius is the same, except with just water and ice - you don't need to get some salt concentration right to reliably reproduce the zero, eliminating that as a variable. "Moderating itself until ice melts" is just something water does, no salt required.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago

    You can't have water reliably below freezing without something like salt to keep it liquid? 0F is not serving the same purpose as 0C is. Not making an argument, just pointing out that they're specifically after a liquid mixture that is below freezing for cooling things down to below freezing in times before refrigeration.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago*

    It's about as equally arbitrary as describing Celsius in terms of 101325 Pa ("standard pressure" boiling point).

    Americans are more used to switching units and scales as they relate to the topic at hand. Describing distance between cities in inches is dumb. Using Celsius for the weather is equally unwieldy as the units are not fine grained and despite the headline, we're not even halfway to the boiling point of water on the Celsius scale. And likewise, if you live in a cold climate, even 0C isn't super relevant as a floor. Things don't even get uncomfortable until -10C anyway.

    Speaking of Pascals, I feel "conversational" in Celsius and it kinda works but Pascals are even more irrelevant to daily tasks. Things don't even get interesting until you get to 200 kPa and jumps of less than 100kPa aren't very noteworthy. It's like currency after massive inflation.

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  • [–] -2 points 3 years ago* (7 children)

    Because we have used it all our lives, that's really it. We know water freezes at 32f and our body temp is around 98.6. The weather channel says it's 70,80,90 every day and we know what that feels like. In a day to day contact we don't have to covert to Kelvin or anything so the standard Fahrenheit scale works fine

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  • [–] 10 points 3 years ago (6 children)

    You can do that with every unit though. How does that make any more sense than inches or ounces?

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago

    Meters and grams are a decimal system which makes more sense than non decimal systems.

    The difference in temperature units is just the somewhat arbitrary starting points. And there are valid arguments for both.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (4 children)

    There are more degrees of lived temperatures, and the difference between 68 and 73 is whether or not you need a jacket.

    Inches and ounces are different forms of measurement so I'm not quite sure of the comparison.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    I have been and lived in both the FREEDOM land and the rest of the world for a significant period of time 10y+, the "it has more marks on the thermometer" isn't really a good argument, turns out there is no "71° time for a slightly warmer jacket" in reality.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    there is no "71 time for a warmer jacket" in reality.

    As an ohioan I strongly disagree with this statement

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