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[–] 21 points 2 years ago (5 children)

Inb4 nonlinear temperature scale

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (4 children)

    It's the only way this meme makes sense. It's a complaint that humans don't like the average of the temperates that produce the feelings of extreme hot and extreme cold. You'd have to change math, change physiology, or lose linearity.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (3 children)

    Nonlinear measures are used for

    1. Brightness of lights
    2. Loudness of noises
    3. Magnitude of earthquakes

    Why not temperature?

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

    None of those scales have negative scalars.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    Actually, earthquake magnitude can be projected to negative numbers. It's well defined but it stops describing earthquakes. For instance, a -3 magnitude earthquake is the energy released by a cat knocking your cell phone off of a nightstand. (see page 290 of this book). Pretty sure the others are also logarithmic scales which are well-defined for any negative number. It just so happens that those negative numbers don't describe anything we care to describe with those scales.

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