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Burning Up (mander.xyz)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
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[–] 3 points 2 years ago (3 children)

The 0 in Fahrenheit was based on nothing and the 100F was supposed to be human temperature but it is off by some degrees

The water is not an arbitrary temperature, the weather is water dependant, at 0C the water will freeze and you get snow/ice instead of rain

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (2 children)

    0°F is when the ocean freezes

    100° F was human body temperature, later revised somewhat with better measurements and a decrease of parasites . The average person in those days in London had a slightly higher body temperature than today

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    0F is not ocean freezing, is the freezing temp of a brine mix that he chose arbitrarily (some think that he chose that temp because it was close to the coldest his town had ever been and he used it to calibrate the scales of his thermometers)

    FYI, the ocean freezes at around 28F

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    Oceans freezing also depends on currents, and mixing of the water from the surface. 28° will freeze water in a room.

    This is why often the ocean is not frozen at much lower temperatures.

    I’m not at all cognizant of how 0 was decided

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