3 ms·
Are the states of water arbitrary?
by PUSH_AX 3y ago
Are 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.