4 ms·

Haha yeah, same with temperature - Fahrenheit would still be a weird thing.

gwd 6y ago
I dunno -- 0F is about as cold as 99% of humans will ever experince, and 100F is about as hot as most humans will ever experience. And a change in temperature of 1F is just about the minimum I can really detect. With C, sure 0C is cold, but tons of people experience colder on a regular basis; and I've had situations where 20C feels a bit too cold, but 21C feels a bit too warm. Most thermostats denominated in C trigger on half a degree difference, not a full degree.
- neverminder 6y ago
  Celsius works better with one of the base materials in the world - water. At sea level 0 degrees water freezes and at 100 degrees it boils. For the same reason Celsius works better with metric system. "What feels cold" is not a good base point, because people are different and that feeling also depends on humidity and wind.
  - gwd 6y ago
    The GP didn't say any of that; they simply said Fahrenheit was "weird". I disagree; Fahrenheit simply human-centric, and once you get used to it, is a lot more practical for day-to-day human experience than celsius. You're pointing out how useful it is when doing science with water. Sure. And since science is important, and it doesn't make much sense to keep two systems around, then yeah, let's go with celsius as the standard. But let's not lose sight fo the fact that we actually are giving up a more human-focused system when we gain this scientifically-focused system.
    - neverminder 6y ago
      Speaking from the human experience, "0 degrees Celsius means the road could be icy" is more useful than "68 degrees Fahrenheit is normal room temperature", wouldn't you agree?
      - gwd 6y ago
        "The road could be icy" is certainly a useful data point. But "70% of the way from 'wow this is cold' to 'wow this is hot' is a moderately comfortable temperature" seems reasonable to me. (68 is a comfortable temperature for men wearing suits... a better more general temperature is probably 72.)
        boomboomsubban 6y ago
        This all puts way too much stock in temperature being what decides if we go "wow this is cold/hot." Wind, humidity, and other assorted factors play too large of a role to value basing our temperature system on it. Zero F with no wind can feel like a nice day compared to zero C with tons of wind.

gwd 6y ago

I dunno -- 0F is about as cold as 99% of humans will ever experince, and 100F is about as hot as most humans will ever experience. And a change in temperature of 1F is just about the minimum I can really detect. With C, sure 0C is cold, but tons of people experience colder on a regular basis; and I've had situations where 20C feels a bit too cold, but 21C feels a bit too warm. Most thermostats denominated in C trigger on half a degree difference, not a full degree.

neverminder 6y ago
Celsius works better with one of the base materials in the world - water. At sea level 0 degrees water freezes and at 100 degrees it boils. For the same reason Celsius works better with metric system. "What feels cold" is not a good base point, because people are different and that feeling also depends on humidity and wind.
- gwd 6y ago
  The GP didn't say any of that; they simply said Fahrenheit was "weird". I disagree; Fahrenheit simply human-centric, and once you get used to it, is a lot more practical for day-to-day human experience than celsius. You're pointing out how useful it is when doing science with water. Sure. And since science is important, and it doesn't make much sense to keep two systems around, then yeah, let's go with celsius as the standard. But let's not lose sight fo the fact that we actually are giving up a more human-focused system when we gain this scientifically-focused system.
  - neverminder 6y ago
    Speaking from the human experience, "0 degrees Celsius means the road could be icy" is more useful than "68 degrees Fahrenheit is normal room temperature", wouldn't you agree?
    - gwd 6y ago
      "The road could be icy" is certainly a useful data point. But "70% of the way from 'wow this is cold' to 'wow this is hot' is a moderately comfortable temperature" seems reasonable to me. (68 is a comfortable temperature for men wearing suits... a better more general temperature is probably 72.)
      - boomboomsubban 6y ago
        This all puts way too much stock in temperature being what decides if we go "wow this is cold/hot." Wind, humidity, and other assorted factors play too large of a role to value basing our temperature system on it. Zero F with no wind can feel like a nice day compared to zero C with tons of wind.