4 ms·
F is 'human scale' in that 0-100 is basically the range a human can operate without having to take serious extra precautions. Of course that doesn't make it 'be
by dagw 3y ago
F is 'human scale' in that 0-100 is basically the range a human can operate without having to take serious extra precautions. Of course that doesn't make it 'better' and I'm sure if we'd grown up using Kelvin we would find that easy and intuitive.
- Cpoll 3y ago-20 to 40C isn't as nice as 0-100, but it's not terrible. AFAIR 0-100 wasn't the goal anyway. 0F was just the lowest they could reach in a lab setting at the time. Then they chose to have 180 degrees between water freezing and boiling.
- andy81 3y agoYou could make the same argument for 0-30C. Perhaps even more so, since 1F is a meaningless level of precision for most activities.
- stephen_g 3y agoBut your second sentence is entirely the point. Practically if you’re used to C then you know exactly what the habitable human range is, and Fahrenheit is meaningless to you (I literally have no intuition for it - I know that 32 is zero C and and 100 is around 40 C, so I know what that feels like, but I can’t imagine at all what any Fahrenheit temperature between that feels like without googling the conversion). So 0-100 being ‘human scale’ is nothing but perhaps a bit of a fun novelty, the only thing that is important is either having or building the familiarity and intuition (which is mostly just from experience of everyday use).
- flangola7 3y agoYou can't imagine what 50F feels like? Or 80F? Come on. Fahrenheit is also more precise. 2 degree F above normal body temp is a fever. 2 degree C is a trip to the ER.
- aragilar 3y agoNope, no idea. If I plug in in numbers, I get 10°C and 26+2/3°C, both of which I can imagine, but neither of the Fahrenheit values have any meaning for me.
- yencabulator 3y agoC is much nicer for weather use because the transition behavior of water around 0 C is a significant factor to human comfort and preparation.