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For whatever reason, I don't comprehend Celsius intuitively. I convert that to Fahrenheit and see 80.6 degrees. Is Spain dry? Or humid? I would revolt as I much
by mathgladiator 4y ago
For whatever reason, I don't comprehend Celsius intuitively. I convert that to Fahrenheit and see 80.6 degrees. Is Spain dry? Or humid? I would revolt as I much prefer cold.
- Glawen 4y agoYou better understand Celsius when you use body thermometer. Normal body temperature is 37, 38 is a light fever, 40 is severe fever. So 27 is temperature of a pleasant summer day, not too hot not too cold.
- cedilla 4y agoThe reason is simply familiarity. If you had lived your whole life with an inverted, nonlinear temperature scale that has freezing water at 53 degree, body temperature at 20 and boiling water at 0 degree you would also find that intuitive.
- Leherenn 4y agoDry. Most of Europe is, except on rare occasions.
- rockinghigh 4y agoNorther Spain is quite humid.
- manuelabeledo 4y agoNorthern Spain is quite humid all year round. I don't get why you said that most Europe is dry. Germany, France, the British Isles, the Netherlands, Poland, etc. aren't dry at all.
- Leherenn 4y agoSorry, I should have clarified I meant when it's hot, which I think was what OP meant in the context of AC. When I meant dry, is that when it's hot (like the 35+°C), it's dry, not that it's never humid. Entire days with 30+ and 100% humidity pretty much never happens in Europe. For instance, Bilbao is quite humid right now (about 80%), but max temps are in the 25°C. Madrid is expected to reach 39°C today, but humidity is about 30%.
- Oletros 4y agoTown in the coast near Barcelona, 32C and 70%
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- isametry 4y agoSometimes I wonder why I constantly hear the Fahrenheit people whine about Celsius, but almost never the other way around. https://i.ibb.co/7zJ640F/d9p762f83xw71-jpg.webp https://i.ibb.co/7zJ640F/d9p762f83xw71-jpg.webp
- arlort 4y agoI think it might be because Fahrenheit is the one unit in the US customary system which is not particularly arbitrary compared to the metric equivalent and it actually has some advantages in day to day use since it maps pretty well to human temperatures It probably has an element of catharsis for people on the receiving end of "metric is superior" whining to point out celsius is not particularly rational
- isametry 4y ago> element of catharsis for people on the receiving end of "metric is superior" Yes, I get that, but that's what it will always remain — just a cope, but not much else. The reason: Customary isn't criticized, as far as I can tell, based on how the individual units are defined. That wouldn't be really valid, because all base units are arbitrary, including those of SI. No, the unit system is criticized as a whole. The way conversions are defined between each other, that's what makes them so much less practical. The fact that a foot isn't 10 inches, a mile isn't 1000 nor 10000 feet (hell, even 5000 would've been better). That 1 gallon of water doesn't weigh 1 pound. In "daily life", both Celsius and Fahrenheit are mostly isolated scales – you don't relate them to other units very often, and you almost never have to convert them to anything else. So it doesn't really matter how they are defined — definitely not on the same level as length, mass or volume.
- wirrbel 4y agoI live in an area of Europe that used SI units, but did use customary units before. I think that part is conveniently forgotten in discussions, it’s not like America is exceptional in having some heritage units. Other parts of the world just managed to migrate. Anyway what I say going to say is there was a migration Path here which went along the lines of changing from a base-12 conversion to a base-10 conversion. So there suddenly was a customary unit and a transitional unit. After that metric base units were introduced
- midasz 4y agoProbably because you didn't grow up with Celcius. Celcius makes sense because it's based on water, 0 is freezing and 100 is boiling. What's Fahrenheit based on? Anything we use in our daily lives?
- afiori 4y agoAs usual there is a relevant XKCD even if I can't find it now. In Fahrenheit 0 and 100 are defined in random ways, but it ends up covering most of the range of temperature human experience in the environment. Celsius's definition does not include putting a thermometer inside an adult horse, but the common range of everyday temperatures is -18 to 50. There are points of view in which imperial units can claim to be easier to use. In the end the SI are technically better for sure; US imperial units are defined in terms of SI units, according to Wikipedia the pound is "legally defined as exactly 0.45359237 kilograms", nor it is a coincidence that -40F° = -40C°
- IntrepidWorm 4y agoCould it be: https://xkcd.com/1643 https://xkcd.com/1643 ? I adore Randall.
- afiori 4y agoIt is, thanks. Actually I had found it apparently but convinced myself that it was not the correct one, I deeply misremembered the setting.
- troad 4y agoYes, it’s incredibly useful for outdoor temperature. 0 F means it’s very cold, 100 F means it’s very hot. Meanwhile, 0 C means it’s sort of a little cold, and 100 C means your eyes will melt. I grew up with and actively use Celsius, but this instinctive disdain for other measurement systems leaves me… a little cold. It’s not even like Fahrenheit has weird non-decimal ratios. Save your mocking for the avoirdupois furlongs!
- 4y ago
- t_mann 4y agoCelsius was based on scientific ideas and works great for describing scientific processes. Fahrenheit was based on everyday weather experience and works great for describing that. They're of course equivalent, and it would be better if the world could agree on one standard (not just for temp, cough cough, metric system).
- pvaldes 4y ago> Is Spain dry? Or humid? Both. Spain is one of the European countries with most diverse ecosystems. The local weather ranges from "tropical Mexico" to "Siberian winter". We have deserts and relic cloud rainforests. The inner core is dry and hot (not much unlike US pairies), the North is like Ireland and the West would be similar to California. Canary Islands are subtropical. Currently most big cities are reaching over the 104ºF (40ºC). A pretty hot year. Environmental crimes made it much worse, so we are having a dry year also. (Stupid note for myself: It seems that all the years with big wars are extra hot. Somebody should study how all this extra energy released locally by bombs and missiles interact with the weather models).
- robobro 4y ago10 is cool, 20 is not. 30 is warm, 40 is hot! Body temp 37c. 20c = 68f (room temp) 30c = 86f. (68 mirrored)
- mantas 4y agoMore like -20 is cold -10 is cool 0 is cold and damp 10 is nice 20 is warm 30 is hot 40 is off the charts
- pastacacioepepe 4y agoNorthern/eastern European spotted!
- peterbraden 4y ago> 40 was off the charts. FTFY
- mantas 4y agoIt's still off the charts up here!
- citrin_ru 4y ago27 is a comfortable indoor temperature for me (if I wear a T-shirt and don’t do heavy physical work). I wonder where a big difference in preferred temperature comes from, given that body temperature is almost the same for all healthy people?