3 ms·

Conversation I had with a US guy a decade ago: „Hey now that I‘ll stay in Europe here for some time, I want to get a real feeling for the temperatures here...“

Conversation I had with a US guy a decade ago: „Hey now that I‘ll stay in Europe here for some time, I want to get a real feeling for the temperatures here...“ - „Sure!“ - „So what temperature is freezing water in Celsius?“ - „Zero.“ - „Wow, that‘s funny. Like, exactly?“ - „Yeah, it‘s the definition.“ - „Cool, but what temperature is boiling water?“ - „100 degrees.“ - „That... makes a lot of sense!“ - „Doesn‘t it? You‘re welcome :)“

deleted 6y ago
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gh02t 6y ago
Interesting tidbit, the original definition for Celsius set 0 as boiling and 100 as freezing. It was swapped in 1743. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celsius https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celsius
BlueTemplar 6y ago
Celsius is not that practical for everyday life though : 1.) The 0-32-96 °F range covers much better the range typically experienced by humans than 0-100 °C. 2.) It's more dozenal than decimal allowing for easier mathematics (even when stuck in a decimal number representation system like we are). 3.) For "non-human" fields, you are probably better off anyway using a scale starting at the absolute zero. (The triple point of water seems like a good candidate for 100 degrees ? Or maybe a value directly related to log 2, e, kB ?)
- ghaff 6y ago
  >For "non-human" fields In those cases, Kelvin is customarily used with the same degree size as Celsius with 0 Celsius corresponding to 273.15 K. (There is a corresponding scale for Fahrenheit degrees but it's rarely used.)
  - BlueTemplar 6y ago
    Hmm, yeah, it might be better to just keep the same degree "width" for both scales (whether Celsius or Fahrenheit).
- diroussel 6y ago
  "practical for everyday life" involves cooking, and I encounter 0°C and 100°C regulary, with ice and boiling water. To be honest, humans are likely able to adapt to scale when talking about the weather, or how hot the room is. The reasons the US should move to metric are: - The rest of the world is on metric - It's better for science and engineering I'm not suggested moving is easy, just that I for one would like it to be attempted.
- majewsky 6y ago
  For room temperatures or air temperatures, integer °C is exactly the right amount of resolution. The difference between 20°C and 21°C is pretty much exactly what I would be able to tell apart. And on the other hand, for body temperatures, tenths of °C as a level of resolution is just right, whereas integer °F would be too coarse.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

gh02t 6y ago

Interesting tidbit, the original definition for Celsius set 0 as boiling and 100 as freezing. It was swapped in 1743. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celsius https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celsius

BlueTemplar 6y ago

Celsius is not that practical for everyday life though : 1.) The 0-32-96 °F range covers much better the range typically experienced by humans than 0-100 °C. 2.) It's more dozenal than decimal allowing for easier mathematics (even when stuck in a decimal number representation system like we are). 3.) For "non-human" fields, you are probably better off anyway using a scale starting at the absolute zero. (The triple point of water seems like a good candidate for 100 degrees ? Or maybe a value directly related to log 2, e, kB ?)

ghaff 6y ago
>For "non-human" fields In those cases, Kelvin is customarily used with the same degree size as Celsius with 0 Celsius corresponding to 273.15 K. (There is a corresponding scale for Fahrenheit degrees but it's rarely used.)
- BlueTemplar 6y ago
  Hmm, yeah, it might be better to just keep the same degree "width" for both scales (whether Celsius or Fahrenheit).
diroussel 6y ago
"practical for everyday life" involves cooking, and I encounter 0°C and 100°C regulary, with ice and boiling water. To be honest, humans are likely able to adapt to scale when talking about the weather, or how hot the room is. The reasons the US should move to metric are: - The rest of the world is on metric - It's better for science and engineering I'm not suggested moving is easy, just that I for one would like it to be attempted.
majewsky 6y ago
For room temperatures or air temperatures, integer °C is exactly the right amount of resolution. The difference between 20°C and 21°C is pretty much exactly what I would be able to tell apart. And on the other hand, for body temperatures, tenths of °C as a level of resolution is just right, whereas integer °F would be too coarse.