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I promise it's not because we think of people outside the US as American. When I was a kid in the 2000s, we were told never to say "black" and to say "African-A
by hot_gril 3y ago
I promise it's not because we think of people outside the US as American. When I was a kid in the 2000s, we were told never to say "black" and to say "African-American" instead. There was no PC term in the US to refer to black people who are not American. This has started to change lately, but it's still iffy.
Besides that, many Americans (including myself) are self-centered in other ways. Yes I like our imperial units better than the metric system, no I don't care that they're called "customary units" outside the US, etc.
- bsimpson 3y agoFahrenheit gets a bad rap. 100F is about as hot as you'll ever get. 0F is about as cold as you'll ever get. It's a perceptual system.
- hot_gril 3y agoI go outside the country and all the thermostats are in 0.5˚C increments because it's too coarse, heh.
- vidarh 3y agoI can't recall caring about <1 degree increments other than for fevers or when people discuss record highs or lows.
- overstay8930 3y agoLmao my thermostat in Germany was in Fahrenheit because the previous occupant disliked the inaccuracy of Celsius since the """software""" allowed the room to get colder before kicking in while in C.
- vidarh 3y agoThe day after I left Oslo after Christmas, it hit -20F. 0F is peanuts. I've also experienced above 100F several times. In the US, incidentally. It may be a perceptual system, but it's not very perceptive, and very culturally and geographically limited. (incidentally I also have far more use for freezing point and boiling point of water, but I don't think it makes a big difference for celsius that those happen to be 0 and 100 either)
- dmoy 3y agoI grew up in a place where it'd get above 100F and below 0F pretty much every year. But I will say, F is pretty decent still, even if the GP statement is a bit off: 100F is getting uncomfortably hot for a human. You gotta worry about heat stroke and stuff. 0F is getting uncomfortably cold for a human. You gotta worry about frostbite and dying from the cold if underdressed. In the middle, you'll probably live. Get locked out of the house taking out the trash when it's 15F? You're probably okay until you find a neighbor. Get locked out of the house taking out the trash when it's -15F? You have a moment of mental sheer panic where you realize you might be getting frostbite and require medical attention if you don't get inside in like <10 minutes. But yea I still use C for almost everything.
- vidarh 3y ago80F is uncomfortably hot for me unless I strip off; that's when my aircon goes on. And 55F is uncomfortably cold... I think basically all of these are rationalisation (and that goes for the celsius numbers too). They don't matter. You learn very early which numbers you actually care about, and they're pretty much never going to be 0 or 100 on either scale. You're not going to be thinking about whether it's 0 outside or not if locked out; just whether or not you're freezing cold or not.
- hot_gril 3y agoIt's not the bookends themselves that's the issue, it's the coarseness. Celsius is too coarse because it's extrapolated from 0-freezing and 100-boiling points. People can generally feel the difference between 1˚F increments, and roughly two make up 1˚C diff. Also, you can't really say "in the 70s" etc with Celsius. I watch a foreign weather report and that entire country is in the 20s ˚C for an entire week. It's a minor difference either way, but I'm not going to switch to something slightly worse.
- vidarh 3y agoIn my 48 years of using Celsius I can safely say I have never cared about smaller increments of celsius than 1. You're not keeping a room stable with that precision, for example, nor will the temperature at any given specific location outside be within that precision of your weather reports. Or anywhere close. And we can, and do, say "low 20's" "high 20s', "low 30's" etc. which serves the same effect. It's again, never in my 48 years mattered. Either system is only "worse" when you're not used to it. It makes no practical difference other than when people try to argue for or against either system online. The only real reason to consider switching would be that it's a pointless difference that creates minor friction in trade, but there too it's hardly a big deal given how small the effect is and how long it'd likely take to "pay for itself" in any kind of way, if ever.
- Sohcahtoa82 3y agoFahrenheit tells you how warm a human feels. Celcius tells you how warm water feels. Kelvin tells you how warm the atoms feel.
- hot_gril 3y agoAlso adding that "Caucasian" was somehow the politically-correct version of "white" here, then it reversed.