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I was always confused how 37 C was a normal temperature in the US. In the USSR where I grew it was a fever and the normal was 36.6. Could it be the way it's mea
by pandaman 7y ago
I was always confused how 37 C was a normal temperature in the US. In the USSR where I grew it was a fever and the normal was 36.6. Could it be the way it's measured?
- comicjk 7y agoTemperatures of 37 C and 36.6 C are barely distinguishable with an ordinary thermometer, and both are within the normal range of human body temperatures (37.32-38.76 C). www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6456186
- elric 7y agoNot sure about any US/USSR differences, but there can be pretty big differences between people individually, between measurements in the same person throughout the day (or month for women), and between how it's measured. 37°C is an average. Axillary (armpit) measurements, for example, are a lot colder than oral or rectal measurements. Perhaps the Russians favoured the former, while the Americans preferred the latter? I suspect there's a nice little bell curve with 37°C in the middle.
- pandaman 7y agoYes, Russia measures temperature in the armpit. Is it really that much colder than in the mouth? Edit: A 37 temperature would automatically give you an excuse from school when I was a kid and, obviously, children always were finding ways to cheat. If just putting the thermometer in your mouth worked then either I was in the dark or nobody has discovered this.
- elric 7y agoYes, the armpit is roughly 0.5°C colder than the mouth.