5 ms·

It also gives you much more resolution, in integers, over the range a human is likely to experience. For something like a home thermostat, 71F, 72F, and 73F ca

It also gives you much more resolution, in integers, over the range a human is likely to experience. For something like a home thermostat, 71F, 72F, and 73F can easily be destinguished by feel and represented as a 2 digit number. Doing the same in C means rounding and losing steps or forcing you to deal with decimals, which people generally avoid.

delta_p_delta_x 3y ago
Your thermostat is probably lying to you—its sensor probably doesn't have the precision it tells you it has. I also have a bridge to sell you if you believe that everywhere in your house is exactly XY °F. My room is considerably cooler than my kitchen, with a temperature difference of as much as 10 °C, especially when I am cooking multiple dishes. If I open my back door in said kitchen, then the temperature rapidly and noticeably plummets, even if several of the gas hobs are on. You discuss 'precision', but then you don't take the next step of realising that any precision comes with a built-in uncertainty, and the 'human feel' of temperature has a massive uncertainty of as much as ±7 °C—depending on, as the other commenter said, wind, humidity, shade, and internal body temperature. I've been raised entirely in a metric country, and have never used degrees Fahrenheit. It was a complete novelty for me when I was younger, and in many ways still is. It is a matter of 'what is more intuitive'. Room temperature is 25 °C, human body temperature is 36 °C, a fever is about 38 °C, it is freezing outside when it is 0 °C or below, and water boils at 100 °C.
volemo 3y ago
I've heard this argument many time and personally do not understand. The ambient temperature is such a subjective thing, so many things affect it besides absolute temperature: wind, sunlight, humidity. And it changes so fast too. I don't think I even need the precision of Celsius, I don't get the necessity of twice the precision of Fahrenheit. And sure, cmiller1, the reference points are arbitrary in Celsius, so are they in Fahrenheit. At least in Celsius the zero point could provide useful information: I know when it's slightly higher than 0˚C there would be mud, when lower — icy roads. (And it isn't really affected by the elevation — ~0.01˚C in the whole range of liveable pressures.) But that's, I believe, irrelevant: I have intuitive understanding of -17˚C or 37˚C without it being a round number, the same way you know what's 32˚F.

delta_p_delta_x 3y ago

Your thermostat is probably lying to you—its sensor probably doesn't have the precision it tells you it has. I also have a bridge to sell you if you believe that everywhere in your house is exactly XY °F. My room is considerably cooler than my kitchen, with a temperature difference of as much as 10 °C, especially when I am cooking multiple dishes. If I open my back door in said kitchen, then the temperature rapidly and noticeably plummets, even if several of the gas hobs are on. You discuss 'precision', but then you don't take the next step of realising that any precision comes with a built-in uncertainty, and the 'human feel' of temperature has a massive uncertainty of as much as ±7 °C—depending on, as the other commenter said, wind, humidity, shade, and internal body temperature. I've been raised entirely in a metric country, and have never used degrees Fahrenheit. It was a complete novelty for me when I was younger, and in many ways still is. It is a matter of 'what is more intuitive'. Room temperature is 25 °C, human body temperature is 36 °C, a fever is about 38 °C, it is freezing outside when it is 0 °C or below, and water boils at 100 °C.

volemo 3y ago

I've heard this argument many time and personally do not understand. The ambient temperature is such a subjective thing, so many things affect it besides absolute temperature: wind, sunlight, humidity. And it changes so fast too. I don't think I even need the precision of Celsius, I don't get the necessity of twice the precision of Fahrenheit. And sure, cmiller1, the reference points are arbitrary in Celsius, so are they in Fahrenheit. At least in Celsius the zero point could provide useful information: I know when it's slightly higher than 0˚C there would be mud, when lower — icy roads. (And it isn't really affected by the elevation — ~0.01˚C in the whole range of liveable pressures.) But that's, I believe, irrelevant: I have intuitive understanding of -17˚C or 37˚C without it being a round number, the same way you know what's 32˚F.