top 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 101 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Fun fact time, -40F is -40C.

And 575F is 575K

  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 74 points 2 years ago (23 children)

    Fahrenheit is a strange scale.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 24 child comments
  • [–] 20 points 2 years ago

    It's just designed with a slightly different set of assumptions.

    Instead of water freezing and boiling 100° apart, it's 180° in fahrenheit. That makes it so that they're on the opposite sides of a temperature gauge, and a degree of rotation of the gauge matches a degree of temperature.
    Instead of zero being the freezing point of water under specific conditions, it's a brine solution whose temperature will stabilize in a way that's useful for using as a calibration point.

    Stripped of its context, it's odd. But it's not irrational, just no longer consensus as the standard, and as such deprecated.

  • source
  • parent
  • load more comments (22 replies)
  • load more comments (2 replies)
    [–] 75 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    Fahrenheit: how hot humans feel

    Celsius: how hot water feels

    Kelvin & Rankine: how hot atoms feel

  • source
  • hideshow 7 child comments
  • [–] 46 points 2 years ago (14 children)

    I don’t think how hot humans feel works at all, it’s just arbitrary

    Can humans survive 100 degree heat? Yes so it doesn’t represent 100%

    150 for 3rd degree burns (almost instant), does Fahrenheit go off base 150? Also no

    What about cold? Well -40 requires a lot of layers, so then +40 should be pretty hot for humans right? Nope, because it’s not related to humans at all

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 16 child comments
  • [–] 26 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    100°F was supposed to be average human body temp. Guy who made the scale fucked up his math and we ended up actually at 98.6°F

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • load more comments (12 replies)
  • load more comments (5 replies)
    [–] 73 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Based on human perception, based on water chemistry, based on physics.

  • source
  • hideshow 7 child comments
  • [–] 28 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    You'll be shocked to learn that the distance in Kelvin is also adjusted to water "chemistry", albeit changing the aggregate state seems more physics to me, since no molceules are reacting with each other.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • load more comments (3 replies)
  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Zero Fahrenheit is the freezing point of brine (of a certain concentration). That's water chemistry.

    Originally, 90F was based on the average human body temperature, but that later changed to 96F, which just goes to show how arbitrary that scale is.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    It's all arbitrary. Someone just decided to base a scale off of something and that something isn't fixed from the start. The meter used to be based off the measurement of the earth, but now it's based off of light.

    It's just some random semi-useful starting point that we all agree on so we're using the same language.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago

    The meter did not change, science has merely defined it more precisely and reliably over time. It is a measure of length, still one 40 millionth of the circumference of the earth through the poles. Other definitions like the speed of light definition will give you the same result. These newer definitions have reduced uncertainty and added ways to reproduce its length by natural means. But it's not like the 'original' meter was shorter or longer than today's meter, at least not by any noticeable margin.

    Shifting the top end of a temperature scale by over five percent of the scale is a bit more arbitrary than that.

  • source
  • parent
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 55 points 2 years ago (22 children)

    Since when is 0°C "fairly cold" it's literally freezing.

  • source
  • hideshow 26 child comments
  • [–] 47 points 2 years ago* (4 children)

    0°C is completely fine with jeans and a thick jacket, especially when it's sunny and there isn't much wind. It's cold, but there's probably not much ice or snow, if anything, probably mostly slush.

    Compared to say -20 C where you should have a good ski jacket and ski pants, warm shoes and socks, generally multiple layers everywhere, winter gloves and so on.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • load more comments (3 replies)
  • [–] 27 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I've been in -37C snow shoveling. Since then 0C doesn't even register as cold to me

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • load more comments (18 replies)
    [–] 49 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I'd like to propose a discussion between a person from Arizona and a person from Alaska to define what is "Really hot outside"

  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Im from Texas, and 100F is "stay inside in the AC" weather. I bet an Arizonan would say the same.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago

    Being from a particularly hot or cold location doesn't make you immune to heat or cold, it makes you a connoisseur of heat and cold. You get better at recognizing gradations of extreme temperature (knowing which are uncomfortable and which can literally kill you if you're not careful), you learn how to plan ahead and dress for the weather, and you develop emotional coping systems for extremes.

    But if it's either 100°F or 0°F, no matter where you're from, that's a temperature to be wary of.

  • source
  • parent
  • load more comments (1 reply)
  • [–] 49 points 2 years ago (28 children)

    Celcius is the logical choice. The others are just crazy.

  • source
  • hideshow 29 child comments
  • [–] 45 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Kelvin and Celsius are the same, just offset onto absolute zero or the water freezing point

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • load more comments (27 replies)
    [+] 31 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 13 points 2 years ago

    0°C getting cold outside
    100°C getting hot in sauna

  • source
  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Never any love for Rankine.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    load more comments
    view more: next ›