5 ms·

I like some of our standards. Temperature is one of them. I like that 0 is cold as hell, and 100 is hot as hell. And I like the fact that in Fahrenheit, the deg

I like some of our standards. Temperature is one of them. I like that 0 is cold as hell, and 100 is hot as hell. And I like the fact that in Fahrenheit, the degrees are finer. Don't have to set my thermostat in half-degree increments in my house.

novok 5y ago
I think preference that just comes from familiarly. In practice you don't set your temperature in half increments in places with Celsius, it's just 20, 21, etc. Most HVACs do not set temperature that accurately enough in a room anyway for 0.5C adjustments to actually be useful. If you come from a Celsius place and then move to the USA, you find it actually fairly annoying, because a bunch of useful numbers to remember is arbitrary as fuck. What is the freezing point again? 35, 37, 33? In Celsius it's 0 and very easy to remember. The freezing point is very useful, since you'll know if the rain will become snow if it's just under 0, or if ice will start forming on the road or not. Similarly what is the boiling point? 200, 205, 210, 212? vs. a nice round easy to understand 100. You can also think about how hot your water can be as a 'percentage of boiling', so 75 becomes 'hotness that is %75 the way to boiling'. Vast majority of the world also knows that -17 (OF) is cold as fuck, and there is nothing special about that specific number too! You would also know that -16 and -18 are cold as fuck. Same with 38C (100F). 40C and 39C are also hot! And there are no unique properties about 0F and 100F, unlike 0C and 100C.
- layer8 5y ago
  > Most HVACs do not set temperature that accurately enough in a room anyway for 0.5C adjustments to actually be useful. The radiator thermostats I use have a 0.5 °C gradation. A 1 °C gradation would be too coarse as far as I’m concerned. That doesn’t mean that I’d prefer Fahrenheit, but 1° C is actually a quite significant step subjectively for environmental temperature.
- genewitch 5y ago
  > Same with 38C (100F). 40C and 39C are also hot! you were doing so well until right here.
BoxOfRain 5y ago
My favourite distance measurement is neither metric nor imperial but nautical. A nautical mile is 1852 metres which approximates the distance of a minute of arc of the Earth's meridians. A cable's length is 1/10 of a nautical mile which (depending on the definition used) is in turn about 100 fathoms. I know all unit systems are arbitrary, but for some reason it feels a bit less contrived than miles or kilometres to me. Having said that I've never actually used cables or fathoms in practice, only metres or feet for depth and nautical miles for distance.
- CRConrad 5y ago
  The only real measure of velocity is furlongs per fortnight.
bradwood 5y ago
In Celsius 0 is also cold as hell and 100 also hot as hell.
- layer8 5y ago
  Depending on whether hell freezes over.

novok 5y ago

I think preference that just comes from familiarly. In practice you don't set your temperature in half increments in places with Celsius, it's just 20, 21, etc. Most HVACs do not set temperature that accurately enough in a room anyway for 0.5C adjustments to actually be useful. If you come from a Celsius place and then move to the USA, you find it actually fairly annoying, because a bunch of useful numbers to remember is arbitrary as fuck. What is the freezing point again? 35, 37, 33? In Celsius it's 0 and very easy to remember. The freezing point is very useful, since you'll know if the rain will become snow if it's just under 0, or if ice will start forming on the road or not. Similarly what is the boiling point? 200, 205, 210, 212? vs. a nice round easy to understand 100. You can also think about how hot your water can be as a 'percentage of boiling', so 75 becomes 'hotness that is %75 the way to boiling'. Vast majority of the world also knows that -17 (OF) is cold as fuck, and there is nothing special about that specific number too! You would also know that -16 and -18 are cold as fuck. Same with 38C (100F). 40C and 39C are also hot! And there are no unique properties about 0F and 100F, unlike 0C and 100C.

layer8 5y ago
> Most HVACs do not set temperature that accurately enough in a room anyway for 0.5C adjustments to actually be useful. The radiator thermostats I use have a 0.5 °C gradation. A 1 °C gradation would be too coarse as far as I’m concerned. That doesn’t mean that I’d prefer Fahrenheit, but 1° C is actually a quite significant step subjectively for environmental temperature.
genewitch 5y ago
> Same with 38C (100F). 40C and 39C are also hot! you were doing so well until right here.

BoxOfRain 5y ago

My favourite distance measurement is neither metric nor imperial but nautical. A nautical mile is 1852 metres which approximates the distance of a minute of arc of the Earth's meridians. A cable's length is 1/10 of a nautical mile which (depending on the definition used) is in turn about 100 fathoms. I know all unit systems are arbitrary, but for some reason it feels a bit less contrived than miles or kilometres to me. Having said that I've never actually used cables or fathoms in practice, only metres or feet for depth and nautical miles for distance.

CRConrad 5y ago
The only real measure of velocity is furlongs per fortnight.

bradwood 5y ago

In Celsius 0 is also cold as hell and 100 also hot as hell.

layer8 5y ago
Depending on whether hell freezes over.