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You don't need an absolute scale, you just need a sensible origin. I suggest taking human perception into account. When talking about the weather or everyday o
by mr_mitm 3y ago
You don't need an absolute scale, you just need a sensible origin. I suggest taking human perception into account.
When talking about the weather or everyday objects, one could argue that the border between "hot" and "cold" is somewhere at room temperature, so around 21°C. At that temperature, it's neither hot or cold. If it's 30°C, it's 9°C of "hotness", so 39°C would be twice as hot. I don't know if it feels twice as hot, as that's quite subjective, but if you want more precision we should switch to another vocabulary entirely.
- lostmsu 3y ago36.6C?
- throwaway290 3y agoHow given temperature feels depends on humidity, airflow, local culture, individual human and specific condition of that human (sitting/moving/sleeping, caffeinated, just ate a meal, bored, enthusiastic). - I know someone who wears a puffy jacket indoors if it's 24 degrees. - You will find sitting in 20 degrees with 88% humidity much more miserable than 20 degrees and 33% humidity. - 42deg with 20% humidity and slight breeze is fine, 38deg with 90% humidity can make you pass out in minutes if you need to walk anywhere in the sun.
- Joker_vD 3y agoWater-freezing temperature is an absolutely sensible zero. The difference between e.g. 2 °C and -2 °C is really quite obvious for the exposed skin: while it's merely "yeah, it's cold" feeling when it's above zero, it almost feel like the frost is biting, almost literally, when it's below zero.
- bangkoksbest 3y agoThis is not true, and it's why we developed separate scales for wind chill (which factors in wind) and heat index (which factors humidity). Looking at the wind chill chart[0] for frostbite times, there is nothing particularly special around the freezing point temperature, even at absurd wind speeds. Ironically, actually, the 0 point for Fahrenheit is far more relevant threshold for frostbite. [0] https://www.weather.gov/safety/cold-wind-chill-chart https://www.weather.gov/safety/cold-wind-chill-chart
- katbyte 3y agoNeither of those are as important as “when water freezes” (ice snow weather effects), boils, and having a nice 100d in between
- ghaff 3y agoThe freezing point of water is indeed one reasonable origin point but the temperature at which water boil (at sea level) isn't very relevant to most people's day to day experiences much less having a nice interval between the two points. You have to use Kelvin as an absolute scale for a lot of scientific and engineering calculations anyway although it would be pretty silly for day-to-day use.
- nephanth 3y agoI'd argue that boiling water (or water-based liquids) is something we encounter pretty often in day to day life (eg. while cooking, brewing tea, ), making it a reasonable reference
- kergonath 3y agoBut then this is also valid if the zero is at 21°C. There is also nothing special at 0°F, it’s just the colour scale that makes it look like that. And if we based the scale on human perception we’d have to define many other parameters besides wind and humidity, like body shape and metabolism rate. It’s more of an argument against basing a temperature scale on human perception (and then I agree completely, which is why I find the centigrade scale much better, except for serious business that demands kelvins).
- bangkoksbest 3y agoYeah, it's not like Fahrenheit or any temperature scale is literally calibrated to human perception (they're all now defined as transformations from kelvin anyways), that's just a (minor) ancillary impact that can be discussed.
- ghaff 3y ago
- _Microft 3y agoTo take ratios you need an absolute zero because otherwise ratios aren‘t even defined. See also my other comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37928268 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37928268