3 ms·

Was surprised the author didn’t bash Celsius degrees - because of their non-zero affine constant they don’t work in a system where units are supposed to multipl

Was surprised the author didn’t bash Celsius degrees - because of their non-zero affine constant they don’t work in a system where units are supposed to multiply. (And so I would imagine they pose problems for Frink). Ask any high school chemistry student struggling with PV=nRT. You stick Celsius degrees in there and you lose. And unlike other SI units, conversion requires an addition, not a multiplication.

tialaramex 6y ago
Celsius isn't an ISO base unit. Just use Kelvin everywhere, you can get used to it pretty easily. It's almost 300K here right now, which is too hot for my liking.
- bcatanzaro 6y ago
  Sure it’s not an ISO base unit, but then again neither are most of the things in Frink. +1 to the idea that real scientists use Kelvin for everyday life.
  - tialaramex 6y ago
    I'm not a scientist, it was just easier once I got used to it. Also I don't like heat and in Kelvin my main argument in support of this (what should be entirely a personal matter of taste but it's fun to argue about matters of personal taste like which is the best movie) is more obvious than in a system like Celsius with an arbitrary zero. The coldest it is possible for anything to be is 0K. That is indeed too cold, but only about 280K less than the inside of my refrigerator or a glass of Coke. You can wear gloves to (carefully) handle something at almost zero and colder is not possible. On the other hand things get way hotter, there is an essentially unlimited amount too hot that things might be. Boiling water is too hot (not even 400K), a pizza oven is even hotter (700K plus for a good one) but lava is much hotter than that, yet lava is a naturally occurring substance, it's just right there in our environment whereas there's no chance of stumbling onto anything at 0K.

3 ms·

Was surprised the author didn’t bash Celsius degrees - because of their non-zero affine constant they don’t work in a system where units are supposed to multipl

by bcatanzaro 6y ago

tialaramex 6y ago
Celsius isn't an ISO base unit. Just use Kelvin everywhere, you can get used to it pretty easily. It's almost 300K here right now, which is too hot for my liking.
- bcatanzaro 6y ago
  Sure it’s not an ISO base unit, but then again neither are most of the things in Frink. +1 to the idea that real scientists use Kelvin for everyday life.
  - tialaramex 6y ago
    I'm not a scientist, it was just easier once I got used to it. Also I don't like heat and in Kelvin my main argument in support of this (what should be entirely a personal matter of taste but it's fun to argue about matters of personal taste like which is the best movie) is more obvious than in a system like Celsius with an arbitrary zero. The coldest it is possible for anything to be is 0K. That is indeed too cold, but only about 280K less than the inside of my refrigerator or a glass of Coke. You can wear gloves to (carefully) handle something at almost zero and colder is not possible. On the other hand things get way hotter, there is an essentially unlimited amount too hot that things might be. Boiling water is too hot (not even 400K), a pizza oven is even hotter (700K plus for a good one) but lava is much hotter than that, yet lava is a naturally occurring substance, it's just right there in our environment whereas there's no chance of stumbling onto anything at 0K.