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I've always hoped we'd move to a 0-100 scale where the scale is the temperatures people can relate to. 0 is cold, 100 is hot. How hot is 100? Same as 100 farenh

I've always hoped we'd move to a 0-100 scale where the scale is the temperatures people can relate to. 0 is cold, 100 is hot. How hot is 100? Same as 100 farenheit. We know that's hot. How cold is cold? Same as 0 celsius, we know that's cold. Of course, for science and cooking we need more dynamic range, which F and C work well for, but just for our daily experience, we need something new.

sjwright 12y ago
> I've always hoped we'd move to a 0-100 scale where the scale is the temperatures people can relate to. That's exactly what Celsius is, except it pegs 0 and 100 at non-arbitrary temperatures that are both scientifically precise and exceptionally relevant to everyday use.
- emodendroket 12y ago
  Hell, let's all use Kelvins.
- Dylan16807 12y ago
  100C is not important to everyday use. The fact that water boils when heated is important, but that could go anywhere from 70 to 200 and the change would barely get noticed. Only 0C is relatable.
  - gpvos 12y ago
    I don't know about you, but I boil water several times every day. I don't go outside to freezing temperatures every day. So this is all relative. In fact, the heater I have at work has a nice digital temperature display, and it works nicely as an indication how long to wait, a bit like a charging/loading indication...
    - Dylan16807 12y ago
      You boil water but you don't directly experience the temperature. All you see is a number that starts near zero and counts to 100. If water boiled at twice the temperature and had half the specific heat you wouldn't notice it. Ice temperature, room temperature, body temperature, these are things you can directly experience and use as a high quality reference point. For the average person the boiling point of water is just 'hot', with a rough idea of how long it takes their particular heater to get there.
VLM 12y ago
"We know that's hot." Beyond a certain age everyone has had the experience of suffering thru having total weirdo coworkers (weird even by my standards) who seemingly randomly oscillate the office thermostat setting from 60 to 80 thru the day because they "feel cold" "feel hot" so they turned the thermostat all the way up or all the way down. Nutcases. I'm just saying if you create a hot and cold human scale, it'll have to be personalized for each individual and seemingly randomly vary over time. May as well use a magic 8-ball.
dalke 12y ago
I like my sauna around 90C/195F. I can relate to that temperature. The coldest weather I've been in is -17F/-27C. I can relate to that as well, though I much prefer not to. On the other hand, I grew up in Miami. In college in northern Florida, those of us from the south stayed up late so we could actually see what it was like when it was freezing outside. We left water outside to see that it actually froze! Back then I couldn't relate to temperatures below 32F/0C. In other words, "we" is a rather nebulous definition.

sjwright 12y ago

> I've always hoped we'd move to a 0-100 scale where the scale is the temperatures people can relate to. That's exactly what Celsius is, except it pegs 0 and 100 at non-arbitrary temperatures that are both scientifically precise and exceptionally relevant to everyday use.

emodendroket 12y ago
Hell, let's all use Kelvins.
Dylan16807 12y ago
100C is not important to everyday use. The fact that water boils when heated is important, but that could go anywhere from 70 to 200 and the change would barely get noticed. Only 0C is relatable.
- gpvos 12y ago
  I don't know about you, but I boil water several times every day. I don't go outside to freezing temperatures every day. So this is all relative. In fact, the heater I have at work has a nice digital temperature display, and it works nicely as an indication how long to wait, a bit like a charging/loading indication...
  - Dylan16807 12y ago
    You boil water but you don't directly experience the temperature. All you see is a number that starts near zero and counts to 100. If water boiled at twice the temperature and had half the specific heat you wouldn't notice it. Ice temperature, room temperature, body temperature, these are things you can directly experience and use as a high quality reference point. For the average person the boiling point of water is just 'hot', with a rough idea of how long it takes their particular heater to get there.

VLM 12y ago

"We know that's hot." Beyond a certain age everyone has had the experience of suffering thru having total weirdo coworkers (weird even by my standards) who seemingly randomly oscillate the office thermostat setting from 60 to 80 thru the day because they "feel cold" "feel hot" so they turned the thermostat all the way up or all the way down. Nutcases. I'm just saying if you create a hot and cold human scale, it'll have to be personalized for each individual and seemingly randomly vary over time. May as well use a magic 8-ball.

dalke 12y ago

I like my sauna around 90C/195F. I can relate to that temperature. The coldest weather I've been in is -17F/-27C. I can relate to that as well, though I much prefer not to. On the other hand, I grew up in Miami. In college in northern Florida, those of us from the south stayed up late so we could actually see what it was like when it was freezing outside. We left water outside to see that it actually froze! Back then I couldn't relate to temperatures below 32F/0C. In other words, "we" is a rather nebulous definition.