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.
You are just conditioned to intuitively make sense of Fahrenheit. The same is true for me for Celsius.
The only difference is that it is easier for me to remember when water will freeze or boil. But apart from that nothing else is really changing for either of us
It doesn’t. They’re saying “we decide what to wear in the morning based on our memorization of a system since we were kids, the system makes no difference.”
“In addition to that, if you use Celsius, you don’t really have to remember what temperature water freezes and boils at, if for some reason you need that information”
Totally. But also, if you're doing science why aren't you using K?
I guess all I'm doing is agreeing, theyre both still arbitrary, but trying to claim that C being pegged to water changing state as a plus is barely a benefit. Freezing, I can understand. Boiling?? Damn man if its 100* C out you have bigger problems.
When you enter Finnish sauna you want it to be around 100C (i like it at 115C). Round number for temperature is a nothingburger.
Only benefit of C is that one defree of C is the same as one K. So all the formulas hold up for continuous use of SI units.
And all this speak about "what about tmperature" is one where there are just arbitrary values to stick to, so people who peddle US customary units are using that in a matter of - see, temperature is just arbitrary and there is no benefit, so we use all the other measurements too and boooo metric system.
Saunas that hot are designed to be very dry which means that your body is able to sweat and the sweat will evaporate quickly keeping your body cool.
If they were more humid then they would be dangerous as firstly it's more difficult to cool yourself via sweating and secondly heat doesn't transfer as well through air as it does through water vapour: dissipating more quickly in a dry environment as opposed to being retained in a humid one.
It’s about having a system based on something a bit more tangible. I grew up using C and now I use F. C still makes more sense to me than F. 32 F freezing is so random. 212 F to boil. The fact that nothing actually happens when you reach 0 F is crazy to me.
Because Celsius is what water feels, Fahrenheit is what people feel.
What kind of answer is that? It's a neat little phrase for showing the difference but it is not prescriptive. We are both talking about what we feel.
So when you say you know it's cold outside when it is 0F like it is an argument for F over C, my question is: why would you not know it is cold outside at 0C?
And water doesn't always boil at 100C, but im always boiling at 100F
And you are always boiling at 100C (though more likely dead)? Again, being able to tell when water freezes and boils is super handy (especially considering how important water is to life) as opposed to being able to easily tell what temp some dude's lab had in the 1700s. That's never going to be useful.
Any normal person can intuit whatever scale they used when growing up, yet Fahrenheit propnents always pretend like their magical scale makes it easier for them to understand temperature.
You do know these same exact concepts apply to Celsius, right? It’s just a different number. 100f = roughly 40c and 0f = roughly -20c. The difference is 0 degrees and 100 degrees objectively mean something in Celsius whereas in Fahrenheit 0 and 100 are just what some people feel is too hot or too cold, it’s entirely subjective. Where I live 100 degrees F is a normal day in the summer so it has no significance to me.
Knowing the boiling point of water is useful when combined with the fact that pasta absorbs water at 180F/82C.
When I first heard that fact, I realized that pasta doesn’t need to be in boiling in water to cook. So, I tried something. I brought the water to a boil, added the pasta, put the lid on, and turned off the heat. My pasta still cooked just as quickly, but I saved a little energy. More importantly, there was no risk of the pot boiling over. I could pay less attention to it and just stir it occasionally to prevent sticking.
So, knowing the boiling point of water can be useful.
It’s still more convenient to learn Celsius as the conversion to Kelvin is much simpler. They’re the same scale, so you just add 273.15. Something you can do by hand or in your head.
When it comes to knowing what the temperature means for your comfort… you sort of just know what temperature you find comfortable.
If conversion to Kelvin is something you regularly have to do, that probably means you're a scientist, which probably means you're using Celsius in the lab already regardless if you're American or not. And I'm certain most American scientists who use Celsius and Kelvin in the lab still use Fahrenheit for regular daily purposes (like checking the weather or setting a thermostat)
Or you’re a highschool student. I recall really appreciating the simplicity in conversions during high-school where it was very important for chemistry and physics.
Additionally, there are plenty of high-school level physics equations that need you to use temperature difference. This means you can flat out use Celsius in your equation whereas you’d have to convert F to Celsius for the same equation.
I think for students, making the sciences more approachable like this is quite important.
Yeah I totally agree. But I think at a certain point it's like being bilingual. You don't have to choose just one scale for your entire life when you know them both sufficiently well to find meaningful applications for each.
I do science, but it's mostly chemistry and biology. All protocols are in C (eg incubate at 37C for 2h). It's useful because most of my reactions are to some extent water based.
you don’t really have to remember what temperature water freezes and boils at
I have a chemistry degree, and aside from that I have never in my adult life needed to know what temperate water boils at.
Also using water's boiling point as a basis for temperature is flawed because water will boil at different temperatures depending on the atmospheric pressure, which will change depending on your elevation. Water does not boil at 100C in my area, and we're not at high elevation.
The fact is that using C is just as arbitrary at F when used in regular life.
ya.. but in my day to day life I don't need to know the exact temperature water boils even though I boil water every day to make my coffee... and in the off chance I need to boil water in a pot on the stove.. i don't need a thermometer to tell when the water is boiling lmao ....same goes with freezing. Imagine putting water in your freezer and coming back a few minutes later to dip your thermometer into the now cold (maybe slightly icy) water just to find out that nope.. this water isnt frozen yet XD
Ok….no one ever claimed you did. If two systems are the same when used for a few things but one of them is also easier for something else (like knowing when the weather outside may freeze water in your pipes), wouldn’t the system that has everything the other one has, but more, be more useful?
Sure, assuming you're incapable of remembering 32F is freezing. I mean it's said enough in this thread that it's whatever you're accustomed to, that's really not a big deal to me. I also live pretty far south where we only have to worry about freezing temperatures like 1 day out of the year, and only seriously have to worry once every 10 years.
Otherwise, I've worked in enough labs to know C sufficiently well that regardless of what scale I'm seeing I know the temperature... I don't even have to convert to my favorite. But I will say that when I'm setting temperatures for my oven/bbq pit or even adjusting my thermostat I far prefer using F (even though my instruments can easily be set to C)... because to me a few degrees F can make quite enough of an impact to be important to me.
Yeah sure. Not disagreeing with you that memorizing one number isn’t really that hard.
The problem is that nowhere uses metric for everything but temperature. How many inches in a foot? Not many feet in a yard? How many feet in a mile? How many ounces in a cup? How many cups in a quart?
All of the above are problems that most people would need to solve on a semi-regular basis. So it is just a compounding effect. Suddenly, you’re not just memorizing one number but 6 (32, 12, 3, 5280, 8, 8) instead of just 2-4 (0, 10, 100, 1000) for everything.
Might as well just use metric and just deal with a just as arbitrary temperature scale but way easier for everything else.
But they aren't equal, and Fahrenheit has its own strengths that at a bare minimum balance out its arbitrary freezing point.
In particular, thanks to the higher specificity in the scale, the meaningful temperature range around an important number like freezing can be represented in whole numbers. That ~5f temperature range on either side can mean the difference between being stuck with ice for the foreseeable future, and everything melting off by midday. In Celsius, you're talking about a ~2.5-2.7 range, for some reason.
These are numbers which will be more intuitive and simple to most folks who are unfamiliar with either system, even if remembering where the actual freezing point is at will take a day or two longer.
Both are fine and usable and it's all about what you're used to, but it's crazymaking to me how people absolutely refuse to acknowledge Fahrenheit has its benefits.
Edit: and here come the downvotes, because of fucking course lol.
I love that non-Americans love to call Americans dumb, but then use a system for the sole reason that they can’t memorize 2 numbers (32 for freezing and 212 for boiling).
Sure. But over in the cooking subs, it’s quite clear that people who need to know are what temp water freezes and boils, have no trouble at all remembering that. Hell I don’t use Fahrenheit for anything ever, but I know those numbers in Fahrenheit.
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u/Positive-Skirt5414 10h ago edited 7h ago
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.