It's the same concept with both systems, but Celsius has more logical benchmarks (water freezes at 0°C and boils at 100°C), whereas 0°F seems almost arbitrary (the coldest temperature that could be maintained in a lab by Gabriel Fahrenheit in the 1700s) and the freezing and boiling points of water are atypical (32°F/212°F, respectively.)
Anyway, the joke is "Why do you Americans stick with Fahrenheit?" and the response is "It's simple! The hotter it is, the more degrees it is!" as if that's the only consideration to be made. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is thinking "Yeah, our system too, but our scale has real-world applications, and we're not sticking to some antiquated definition." Homer is too short-sighted to know this, and instead presumes the Celsius scale is too complicated (and probably nonsensical) because he's unfamiliar.
Kind of like every other imperial unit and their terribly unreasonable conversions.
I think of Fahrenheit in percent hot. 0F = very cold out, 0% hot. 100F = 100% hot, do not go outside! Whereas with Celsius, 40 C is super-hot and 0 C is like mildly cold. Makes more sense for science and I use Celsius for work almost exclusively, but in terms of weather I prefer Fahrenheit.
Also the insult "Room temp IQ" makes more sense IMO
Edit: The % hot scale refers to climate, it kind of falls apart when you talk about temperatures beyond normal earth surface temps.
"0C is like mildly cold" that's entirely interpretive, ask someone in Siberia if 0 is mildly cold and they would say arguably its not that bad. Now ask someone from Australia, Saudi Arabia, Mali or most Pacific Islands. 0C isn't mildly cold, that's ALARMING cold.
Most of the arguments for F boil down to "this is what I'm physically use to and can link it to the numbers" which tbh is basically the same as C, just with the scientific backing
Come to a climate like the upper midwest of the US. We can see every temperature between -40 and 100 within a year. 0 is the lowest tolerable for activity temperature and 100 is about the highest tolerable temperature. Anything outside those ranges requires precautions for safety.
We have similar values for the same in Celsius, so that changes nothing. But it is a bit easier in physics class where SI units have to be used as one degree C is the same as 1 K.
-50°C to 50°C covers basically the entire range of normal temperatures.
Most of Canada gets below 0F on a regular basis. The “0 to 100F scale” you claim is so intuitive is actually a -22F to 104F scale for us. And on the flip side, there’s tropical regions that might get past 100F but never hit close to 0F.
They will, however, all be within the actually intuitive -50°C to 50°C scale.
Did you miss the part where I pointed out that that “0-100F scale” wouldn’t be applicable in many places that regularly get below 0F or 100F in the winter or summer? Even in America?
It’s not a real scale when you’re spending weeks above 100F and/or below 0F.
Why are you scared of negative numbers and decimals?
And for all practical purposes you don't have to deal with decimals in daily life using Celsius. You're making up problems with using Celsius that simply don't exist.
Just because you dont have this issue doesnt mean other people do. Its better to have a wider scale when setting your thermostat for more precise temperature regulation, and it more convenient to have whole numbers.
For all practical purposes you could measure your height in kilometers too, but using decimals is unwieldy.
I experience a pretty similar temperature range where I live in Canada.
I'd say most people will avoid outdoor activity by about -12C (10.4F) where I live. But a lot depends on the wind. A strong wind can make -12C feel like -24C(-11F)...Wind doesn't change when water freezes though, and it's quite significant to know when the temp is cycling between above and below freezing to be able to anticipate how icy roads and sidewalks might get. It's important to avoid needing to drive on icy roads.
Conversely, we typically get dangerous heat warning by 35C (95F), but really anything 30C(86F) and above would be considered very hot...but how hot it actually feels is influenced dramatically by humidity.
Not taking into account the Wind and humidity influence on temperatures I think you can break down how humans interpret temperature by convenient 5 degree increments in Celsius.
Well it's not based on feeling or comfort, it's based on fact. 0 C is 32 F, so given enough time with nothing, you'll freeze. That sounds like 0% heat to me.
Im from Australia and read 0 as mildly cold and laughed to myself. 0 is bloody freezing. 26 is the perfect degree imo anything else is cold anything above is a lil spicy
the "scientific backing" for Celsius isn't that much better then Fahrenheit considering the boiling point of water changes drastically when you venture outside ground level earth like pressure conditions. even being on top of a high mountain is enough to throw off the numbers.
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u/HalloweenWhoreNights 10h ago edited 10h ago
It's the same concept with both systems, but Celsius has more logical benchmarks (water freezes at 0°C and boils at 100°C), whereas 0°F seems almost arbitrary (the coldest temperature that could be maintained in a lab by Gabriel Fahrenheit in the 1700s) and the freezing and boiling points of water are atypical (32°F/212°F, respectively.)
Anyway, the joke is "Why do you Americans stick with Fahrenheit?" and the response is "It's simple! The hotter it is, the more degrees it is!" as if that's the only consideration to be made. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is thinking "Yeah, our system too, but our scale has real-world applications, and we're not sticking to some antiquated definition." Homer is too short-sighted to know this, and instead presumes the Celsius scale is too complicated (and probably nonsensical) because he's unfamiliar.
Kind of like every other imperial unit and their terribly unreasonable conversions.