4 ms·

> which is arguably more practical for day to day use No, it is not. Americans say this only because they're used to it. The common arguments are that is that

> which is arguably more practical for day to day use No, it is not. Americans say this only because they're used to it. The common arguments are that is that it is more precise, and 'you see temperatures from zero to one hundred degrees Fahrenheit throughout the year'. Firstly, the problem with Fahrenheit is that its realisation is inaccurate by modern standards—which is why every single non-SI unit is now just an exact multiple of a corresponding SI unit with the same dimensions; the mediaeval and early modern definitions having been entirely forgotten. A bowl of salted ice and his own armpit? Truly an 18th-century invention. Next, the extra precision that a difference of one degree Fahrenheit gives you is frankly useless. Within a single room one can experience a difference of over five degrees Celsius or more, depending on what's in the room—a radiator or air conditioner running, or the gas stove in a kitchen, or a high-end PC. Forget rooms. On the human body itself there can be a two to three degree Celsius difference between the extremities and the thorax/torso/head. Any field that requires extreme precision will naturally end up using SI units, so kelvin (or some related scientific unit). (Excluding the absolutely crazy bunch of American machinists who like using thousandths and ten-thousandths of an inch—at this point the joke writes itself). As for climates, there are places that see very little difference in temperature, and definitely not the 'nice 0 – 100' range that Americans claim. Even in the US there are places like southern Louisiana and Florida that have borderline tropical climates, and don't really go below ~15 °C or above 35 °C. All of this is not really logical either, and all end up being a manifestation of familiarity.

andrewflnr 1y ago
I'm not generally a Fahrenheit defender, but I think it's silly to deny the user-friendliness of having more integer values in the day-to-day temperature range, without going too far out of the two-digit measurement range. It lets you have a little more precision without being much effort to do casual math on. Milli-kelvin are far too small, a single kelvin is too big a perceptual range, and decimals are too annoying when we just want to talk about the weather.
- stephen_g 1y ago
  I’m legitimately surprised by this idea - surely people in countries that use Fahrenheit don’t go around saying things like “Oh I thought it was going to be 54 degrees but it’s actually 55, so much different!” I’ve grown up with Celsius and never felt the need to use decimals in day to day weather discussion… Many air conditioners let you go up by half a degree C and that’s more than enough precision, more than I’ve ever felt was necessary in everyday conversation.
  - ghaff 1y ago
    So why do those air conditioners go up and down by half a degree C rather than a full degree if people don't care about precision? Never seen an F degree thermostat do stuff in half degrees.
  - andrewflnr 1y ago
    1 degree F is right on the borderline of detectability, and in my opinion that's just right. FWIW I do make single degree changes to the AC reasonably often and notice the difference. That might be due in part to convection nonsense in my house, but that's arguably another argument in favor of that level of precision being useful in practice. I can believe centigrade-and-a-half works fine too, but that doesn't itself undermine the idea that F is kind of handy, with that tiny bit less bother. Again, not saying F is great, just that that one minor advantage is in fact real.
  - matwood 1y ago
    On the edges, absolutely. 66F is comfortable working temperature for me. 65F is too cold and I will start to shiver.
  - Y_Y 1y ago
    Oddly the same system that's enamoured with measurements like "sixty-fourths of an inch" can't countenance the sort of witchcraft entailed in "half a degree Celsius"
    - ghaff 1y ago
AnthonyMouse 1y ago
> As for climates, there are places that see very little difference in temperature, and definitely not the 'nice 0 – 100' range that Americans claim. That's not really the point. 0° F: It's cold outside. 100° F: It's hot outside. 0° C: It's cold outside but not really that cold. 100° C: Dead. 0 K: Dead. 100 K: Dead. These things are the case for humans regardless of whether you live in a place that actually gets cold or hot outside.
- delta_p_delta_x 1y ago
  > 0° C: It's cold outside but not really that cold. > These things are the case for humans Who says so? 0 °C is very cold by many people's standards. About half the human population lives within the tropics. In fact I'd like to see Americans walk around in the UK wearing just a T-shirt and bermudas when it's barely above freezing, and insist 'it's not really that cold, it's only 32 °F'.
  - ghaff 1y ago
    Maybe this is the perspective of someone who has spent a lot of time in the northern US, but it's cold but really not that cold. I might even run outside briefly in bare feet in the snow. But, yes, get to 0 degrees F and you're in bitter cold territory although, of course it gets colder in the northern Midwest/mountains/etc. And my contractor has been in shorts and a T in 40s-ish weather this week. The point is that F degrees seems a pretty human scale that doesn't usually need a lot of decimals or minus signs for routine purposes. That it doesn't correspond to a couple of water transitions at standard pressure/temperature is sort of irrelevant. Of course, I and many other people are perfectly happy with using Celsius/Kelvin degrees for various purposes.
    - magicalhippo 1y ago
      The minus sign is quite practical though. When winter is coming, if it's 3 deg C outside, I typically don't need to worry about ice. If it's -3 deg C outside, I need to worry about ice. When winter is waning, if it's been icy and it's -3 deg C outside, I typically don't need to worry about water on top of the ice. If it's 3 deg C outside, I typically do need to worry about water on top of the ice making it super slippery.

andrewflnr 1y ago

I'm not generally a Fahrenheit defender, but I think it's silly to deny the user-friendliness of having more integer values in the day-to-day temperature range, without going too far out of the two-digit measurement range. It lets you have a little more precision without being much effort to do casual math on. Milli-kelvin are far too small, a single kelvin is too big a perceptual range, and decimals are too annoying when we just want to talk about the weather.

stephen_g 1y ago
I’m legitimately surprised by this idea - surely people in countries that use Fahrenheit don’t go around saying things like “Oh I thought it was going to be 54 degrees but it’s actually 55, so much different!” I’ve grown up with Celsius and never felt the need to use decimals in day to day weather discussion… Many air conditioners let you go up by half a degree C and that’s more than enough precision, more than I’ve ever felt was necessary in everyday conversation.
- ghaff 1y ago
  So why do those air conditioners go up and down by half a degree C rather than a full degree if people don't care about precision? Never seen an F degree thermostat do stuff in half degrees.
- andrewflnr 1y ago
  1 degree F is right on the borderline of detectability, and in my opinion that's just right. FWIW I do make single degree changes to the AC reasonably often and notice the difference. That might be due in part to convection nonsense in my house, but that's arguably another argument in favor of that level of precision being useful in practice. I can believe centigrade-and-a-half works fine too, but that doesn't itself undermine the idea that F is kind of handy, with that tiny bit less bother. Again, not saying F is great, just that that one minor advantage is in fact real.
- matwood 1y ago
  On the edges, absolutely. 66F is comfortable working temperature for me. 65F is too cold and I will start to shiver.
- Y_Y 1y ago
  Oddly the same system that's enamoured with measurements like "sixty-fourths of an inch" can't countenance the sort of witchcraft entailed in "half a degree Celsius"
  - ghaff 1y ago

AnthonyMouse 1y ago

> As for climates, there are places that see very little difference in temperature, and definitely not the 'nice 0 – 100' range that Americans claim. That's not really the point. 0° F: It's cold outside. 100° F: It's hot outside. 0° C: It's cold outside but not really that cold. 100° C: Dead. 0 K: Dead. 100 K: Dead. These things are the case for humans regardless of whether you live in a place that actually gets cold or hot outside.

delta_p_delta_x 1y ago
> 0° C: It's cold outside but not really that cold. > These things are the case for humans Who says so? 0 °C is very cold by many people's standards. About half the human population lives within the tropics. In fact I'd like to see Americans walk around in the UK wearing just a T-shirt and bermudas when it's barely above freezing, and insist 'it's not really that cold, it's only 32 °F'.
- ghaff 1y ago
  Maybe this is the perspective of someone who has spent a lot of time in the northern US, but it's cold but really not that cold. I might even run outside briefly in bare feet in the snow. But, yes, get to 0 degrees F and you're in bitter cold territory although, of course it gets colder in the northern Midwest/mountains/etc. And my contractor has been in shorts and a T in 40s-ish weather this week. The point is that F degrees seems a pretty human scale that doesn't usually need a lot of decimals or minus signs for routine purposes. That it doesn't correspond to a couple of water transitions at standard pressure/temperature is sort of irrelevant. Of course, I and many other people are perfectly happy with using Celsius/Kelvin degrees for various purposes.
  - magicalhippo 1y ago
    The minus sign is quite practical though. When winter is coming, if it's 3 deg C outside, I typically don't need to worry about ice. If it's -3 deg C outside, I need to worry about ice. When winter is waning, if it's been icy and it's -3 deg C outside, I typically don't need to worry about water on top of the ice. If it's 3 deg C outside, I typically do need to worry about water on top of the ice making it super slippery.