4 ms·
Many imperial units make little sense, but Celsius and Fahrenheit are both equally arbitrary scales.
by rcme 3y ago
Many imperial units make little sense, but Celsius and Fahrenheit are both equally arbitrary scales.
- ndsipa_pomu 3y agoYes, but at least Celsius uses the same size degree as Kelvin (which is also arbitrary) and Celsius has simpler fixed points based on freezing and boiling water (0 and 100).
- PUSH_AX 3y agoAre the states of water arbitrary?
- rcme 3y agoGiven that things can get colder than the freezing point of water, yes it is arbitrary.
- PUSH_AX 3y agoI don’t believe that’s what arbitrary means.
- rcme 3y agoThat is what arbitrary means. The 0 point of Celsius is arbitrarily chosen. For instance, 0 grams means 0 mass. 0 Celsius does not mean 0 energy.
- PUSH_AX 3y agoI’m not sure how we’ve gotten from the state of water being a scale of temperature to specifically why 0 on that specific scale being variable… The choice to choose the state of water, regardless of its variability, wasn’t an arbitrary choice. That’s what’s being discussed. Arbitrary would mean it was chosen on a whim, which objectively it was not.
- rcme 3y agoThe choice wasn't arbitrary, but the result is arbitrary. As in, the choice of 0 is not tied to the underlying physics of temperature the way 0s of other units are chosen.
- katbyte 3y agoCelsius is not “equally arbitrary - 0 is where water freezes and 100 it boils vs 2 random numbers I can never remember. Fahrenheit is also only used by one country in the entire world: America.
- peteradio 3y agoYea, well 0F is too damn cold for humans and 100F is too damn hot, so its a pretty good scale for humans.
- katbyte 3y agoknowing 0 is where water freezes and 100 where it boils sounds like a pretty dang useful scale for humans in all sorts of applications from science to cooking to safety to weather. 0f is what -15? that really doesn't mean anything meaningfully different then -5c or -20c its all cold and frozen where 0 being where water freezes and you can expect ice means something, as does water boiling at 100. there is a reason countries who still generally use lots of imperial units have fully switched over to metric temperatures.
- peteradio 3y agoIf you want to know if its freezing out just look at the water. Is it boiling? Again look at the water. Having the units align with human sense makes quite a bit of sense, I reiterate. Is it 50F? Well, that's quite dandy. Is it 50C? Am I dead or am I fine, couldn't tell you based on that dumb scale based on one particular molecules behavior. To be clear I'm not saying Celsius and Fahrenheit are on even footing, I'm saying Celsius is totally worthless when you already have Kelvin. Also the supposed benefit of Celsius goes out the window when you are not at Standard Pressure, woops!
- katbyte 3y agofrom the other side: 50F? is that cold or really hot? whats 100? will 0 kill me? i have no idea the numbers are random. 50C? oh that is halfway from frozen to boiling. 5C? water is nearly freezing. 0C its frozen better watch out for ice on the road (because you do realize you can't easily see blackice on roads?) what temp in F does water even freeze at? i have no idea. boil? ditto some random numbers. Fahrenheit gives you nothing over Celsius and makes literally no sense unless you grew up with it. it does not "align with human senses" in any real meaningful way - the numbers are random and only feel right to you as its what you are used to, just like anyone who grew up with Celsius has adjusted to those numbers, while also getting all the benefits of a logical scale. Celsius is logical, easy to grasp, provides a number of benefits in many applications, and used by 95% of the people on this planet.