Americans have compatibility issues with the rest of the world, and it’s not getting any better - in more ways than this one.
It literally doesn’t matter.
Whatever. Metric is better in pretty much every other way, but Fahrenheit is demonstrably better for describing temperature as experienced by a human.
Fahrenheit is demonstrably better for describing temperature as experienced by a human.
I used to say this exact thing. I decided to be scientific about it and test it by learning Celsius and trying it for a few months.
I have not gone back. It has been seven years. All my devices are still reporting Celsius to me.
I was enjoying the process just because of the novelty of learning a new temperature scale, but when I experienced my first winter with Celsius I knew I’d never go back.
0 being freezing is so much more useful than you’d think. 23°F doesn’t really mean anything to me, but -5°C means “as far below freezing as 5°C is above freezing.” It inherently provides context without having to do math.
Also, the degrees being “larger” makes them more meaningful and thus easier to learn.
If you want to try what I did, here are some useful steps. First, this rhyme: “30 is hot, 20 is nice, 10 is chilly, 0 is ice.”
More importantly, here’s the heuristic I came up with: memorize the 10s. So 10°C = 50°F, 20°C = 68°F, 30°C = 86°F (easy to remember 68 and 86 because they’re reversed). Then memorize the 5s. You can always find them because they’re 9°F off from the 10s. 25°C = 77°F for example.
Once you have those points memorized, you can go up and down from them using 2°F per 1°C. It’s really 1.8, but since at most you’ll be 2°C away from a certain value, the most you’ll ever be off is 0.4°F. So if the weather app tells you it’s 22°C, you start at 68°F and add 4 to get to 72°F (it is actually 71.6 but who cares?). If it says 23°C, you start at 77°F and subtract 4 to get 73°F (actually 73.4, but again who cares?).
I used this heuristic until I didn’t really need it anymore. I still use it if someone asks me the temperature, because I live in the US and no one knows Celsius. So I quickly convert and give them their Fahrenheit value. But at this point I don’t really need to do so personally.
And like I said, I much prefer Celsius even for describing weather. It has really taught me how arbitrary both scales are. A co-worker of mine said, “Yeah but 100° sounds hot.” I replied, “The first time a colleague in India told me it was 40° outside, that sounded hot.” I didn’t need to convert it (didn’t bother memorizing that value because I never see it where I live), it just sounded hot because I knew the scale. (It’s 104°F for the record.)
But as I touched on, I was shocked by how much the freezing point being zero mattered. It makes sub-freezing temperature values so useful. I hadn’t expected that, growing up I knew 32°F was freezing and was so used to that nonsense that I didn’t realize what I was missing until I experienced it.
Same, it’s also nice because I really don’t notice 1 degree F, but 1 C feels meaningful
Regarding what “sounds” hot, I think 100 makes more sense as the “super hot” number than 40. Although both numbers are arbitrary, 100 is less arbitrary. (Sorta. We just culturally define 100 to be an important number) Fahrenheit makes more sense if you think of it as “0 feels super cold, 100 feels super hot” although I’ll admit it’s a little strange that room temperature is 3/4s up the scale. That could be solves with a logarithmic scale, but that would probably be worse than either system.
I understand where you’re coming from. It was my position before I tried my experiment! 🙂
At the end of the day, the best unit is the one you and the people around you understand!
Gotta watch Wapner.
What?
Edit: Oh a Rain Man reference? Are…you implying that I’m autistic because I shared a heuristic? And that somehow that’s a bad thing, which is of course the implication?
Do you know what service you’re using right now?
Eh, I have lived with both Celsius and Fahrenheit and I far prefer Fahrenheit.
I tried the same thing, found c to be dog shit for describing air temperature. So after a year I went back. Wild how personal experience can vary so much!
You said a lot of words to basically say fuck all that matters.
It’s personal preference. F is objectively more fine of a scale compared to C. Which can be arguably more useful for air temp. But it’s also arguable that the extra resolution is unneeded since you can’t really tell the difference to that degree.
Frankly both C and F are both equally beyond absolute fucking dogshit for telling how nice or bad the weather is since the quality of the weather needs more things then JUST temp to have a even remotely decent idea of what it’s like outside.
We all just kinda assume the rest based on lived experience of the area we are actively in when talking about it day to day.
But for example 30c in iowa vs California vs florida are LITERALLY nothing alike. At fucking all.
30c in Germany and 30c Colorado are nothing alike.
Humidity, altitude, cloud coverage, wind, and other factors play such a major part of of quality of the weather that arguing over the scale you use is fucking pointless.
Fahrenheit is demonstrably better for describing temperature as experienced by a human.
It’s just not though. F uses a wider range of numbers to describe common outside air temperature, but more numbers =/= better.
I’ve lived in both F and C countries and farenheit is not easier, more intuitive, more sensible or better in any way. A number is a number. The extra precision of F is not super useful - no one can really feel a 1F difference. The freezing point of water does make a huge difference, so knowing above/below zero C is useful, but above/below 32F is no harder.
This argument that F is somehow more suitable for human temperatures is something you see online, but as someone comfortable with both i can say there is functionally no difference, except that metric is compatible with the rest of the world.
As someone who has used both and grew up with both I find f to be more suitable for human temps.
There are functional differences, your avg household machines needing set points for a thermostat are WAY fucking nicer to use F with then C. Machines frequently give way too much damn leeway when you use C resulting in inconsistent temp control. It’s god damn annoying.
Otherwise both systems objectively fucking suck at accurately describing the weather outside.
Also they always forget that on modern digital thermometers, we have decimals, which means that the F scale doesn’t really have a wider range to describe common outside air temperature at all.
Isn’t that just not true? I mean it really couldn’t matter less since both have enough, but there are more numbers (including decimals) between 0-100 than like -20 to 30 (idk what a good C range is.)
I strongly disagree on one key point:
no one can really feel a 1F difference
Yes I can. Changing my thermostat by a single degree can be very impactful on my comfort. And on the “too warm side” each additional degree is noticeably less comfortable.
Days with highs of 68F, 69F, and 70F and comparable humidity all feel different to me. Sure, there are more factors at play but holding the rest equal, 1F differences are noticeable.
Depends on whether humidity stays the same or not…
I am so tired of this claim, it just feels that way because you are used to it, just as C feels easier to use for describing temperatures for me as I am used to that.
It is a completely subjective definition, that you can’t judge objetively.
“demonstrably better”
Well go on then, I would like you to demonstrate to me how it is better.The argument is that since the numbers between 0 and 100 are sacred, as proponents of both metric and imperial temperature scales agree, that the system that centers that range more evenly over the range of temperatures experienced by humans is preferable, and wastes less numeric precision on common temperatures.
This is flawed because it turns out that 1) people can comfortably use a wide enough range of numbers that it doesn’t matter and the value of the system you are used to far outweighs the saved handful of syllables and 2) people don’t communicate about weather colloquially with enough precision or accuracy for any possible advantage to actually matter.
There are only two reasons to use one system over the other, and they’re both consistency. Consistency with the rest of the world, and consistency with itself.
Everyone else uses metric, so we should too. It also uses a system, as opposed to a combination of every 14th century tradespersons system.With Celsius, you can’t walk outside and exclaim in horror “It’s a hundred and 20 fucking degrees!”. “It’s in the negatives.” doesn’t carry any weight either.
It is demonstrably not. You are more familiar with it, and you loathe decimals, so you are of the personal opinion that it is. But that is all it is, your personal opinion about it.
demonstrably
so do it
Which units are best doesn’t matter: the point is, nobody else uses standard units anymore, apart from a couple oddball countries, and only one of them - North Korea - isn’t trying to extricate itself from it.
Everybody else tries to be a part of the world’s technical and scientific communities by speaking the same language, but of course America has to be different. Because of course it does… And it’s tiring if you ask me.
America does speaks metric, especially the technical and scientific communities. They just also speak standard.
Don’t other countries get on Americans for not speaking more than one language? Why is that now a detriment?
They just also speak standard.
Well they shouldn’t. It’s harmful.
Because people enjoy hating America. It’s one of lemmys favorite pass times.
Don’t forget another area where metric is somehow thriving; the inner cities in the US.
Edit: ya’ll need to lighten up.
US scientists also use metric.
I dunno - I had to buy a mattress bed and sheets in feet in Thailand. We don’t even do that in America.
And the steel tube was sold in inches, meters and millimeters ¯_(ツ)_/¯
And I agree with you, fully, except for temperature. “If everyone was jumping off a bridge”, right?
The scale is stupid and I don’t give a fuck if it’s the “norm”. The norm is dumb.
Norms may be dumb but they make everybody’s lives easier when everybody follows them.
As for temperature specifically, there’s nothing inherently better in Celsius or Fahrenheit. It’s just a choice. The only unit that is superior to all of them is the Kelvin because it has a true zero, but it’s not commonly used in everyday settings.
But there is something inherently better in Fahrenheit! 0 is fucking cold. 100 is goddamn hot. It’s a measure that makes sense to the perception of us, human beings.
0 in Celsius is a little cooler than brisk, and 100 means you’ve been dead for a while. It’s a dumb system for humans to use.
Yet somehow Celsius seems to speak to everybody outside the United States just fine.
This is such a bike shed issue. You’re being ridiculous.
0 means water freezing, 100 means water boiling. This is actually quite helpful to know instinctively.
Sure if we are cooking, doing chemistry or anything else that directly involves liquids and doesn’t need extremely specific values that Celsius isn’t equip to handle.
The only real difference between f and c is how fine the scale is. That’s it. Literally the ONLY functional difference.
If you dont need a finer scale then F has no benefits over C and they are entirely equal.
And realistically if your getting into precision just use fucking kelvin.
Both F and C objectively suck ass equally. Honestly the only time in my life I’ve found F or C to better is when I need to set the temp on a thermostat. F on cheap thermostats is more reliable as it has less leeway before it kicks on/off. Resulting in a more consistent air temperature.
C tends to drift more above and below the set point. But nicer thermostats tend to not have that issue anyways. So it’s a moot point most of the time.
Why tho?
“demonstrably”? You don’t have the self-reflection capacity to realize that you only think it’s better because that’s what is used wherever you happen to live? And to realize that it’s the exact same for everybody on the planet?
Maybe they live on a hill and what they really mean is
Don’t you mean 1/6*π radians?!
When tau says it is 2pi outside…
This is 2pi4me.
30 degrees Fahrenheit? Hell yeah. It’s practically tropical. If it’s sunny as well, I’ll be rolling my windows down.
(Not me in pic, but I’ve been him)
You fuckers argued to much No more relative temperatures for you, we‘re all using kelvin now
I’m using rankine it’s more precise
What an abomination of a unit!
why are still not using metric?
Unofficially, people are stubborn and anti-Europe.
If it makes you feel better, some cooks, all scientists and and all people involved in the drug trade are fluent in metric.
Because retooling is expensive. I applaud the adaptation, but we have a lot of tools written that way. Also, are patents written in English or metric units? Would that invalidate them?
Because retooling is expensive.
Other countries have done it successfully.
Is the USA incapable of doing things that others have done?
Yes.
Expensive for little-to-no benefit.
Wars are a much better investment.
Expensive is relative.
Parents are written in customary primarily, but the patent office recommends listing units in both for global clarity.
It wouldn’t invalidate them because customary is defined by metric, so there’s no ambiguity. It’s exactly the same as saying “the bar is 1 meter long” vs “the bar is 100 centimeter long”. An inch is just a quaint way to write 25.4 mm.
Because it provides zero practical benefit for the vast majority of people.
There’s no reason to other than to be the same as everyone else, and we already are for anything scientific or medical.
the same reason they don’t speak french.
you can use metric, just like you can speak french.
but people will think you’re talking gibberish.
It’s the first kind of 30° here today
And it’s not wrong when it says that’s MUCH COOLER than yesterday
Today is 42.2 C for me today. Then you factor humidity on top of that and it becomes like the gates of hell. Then I remember that I live in dallas and I basically already am in hell.
The European mind can not comprehend…
I was going to make snark remarks on the fact that a lot of people live in hostile environments and it’s not super sustainable because we need climate control year round in every building and cars, but I live in Canada and it would be pretty hypocritical given the fact that I need climate control most of the year too. In fact, sometimes in winter when I watch the endless ballet of machinery burning oil to plow and move the snow, I wonder why we go through such trouble to live here.
I guess we get used to a lot of things. However 42C is too much for my taste. I go vacationing in the Caribbean where it’s usually around 30C, and it’s pretty much my limit.
We have that sort of heat in Australia, and use Celsius like rational people
European here, just had two weeks of temperatures never going below 30c even at night. I had 34c at 3am the other day… We basically are all in hell at this point.
The City of Brotherly Hate
30 C isn’t that hot… hell, half of the country is regularly above that for over half the year.
And 30 F isn’t really that cold. Throw a hoodie on or maybe a light jacket.
I wish it were 30 F right now. I’m ready for summer to be over.
I’m slowly trying to convert myself to metric. Temperature is a hard one for me because it’s so ingrained in my psyche.
Length is easier. 440mm is much easier than 17 21/64 in. Plus all the CAD software I use is easy to switch to metric. Weight isn’t hard either since most of the maker things I use (filament/resin) are in metric. My doctor’s office even weighs me in kg thinking they can sneak it by me. I know what 92.4kg is you cheeky bastards.
Well it’s 37 right now where I’m at 😵💫
Yo its like 97 degrees. Is that like the temperature of the sun in Europe?
I’m all for metric, but I think farenheit is better for temperature.
It just ranges better in my opinion. 70 degrees farenheit vs. 21.11 degrees Celsius
30c is fucking cold tho… That’s still hoodie weather. The fuck do you mean you think that’s hot?!
We don’t even start to get to “God damn it’s hot out” till around 41-42c with 85-90% humidity
Nah 30c is “i wish it was socially acceptable to just walk around naked because I am fucking dying in a t shirt and shorts” weather.
40 is just that but worse
I hope I never have to experience high humidity 40 I might just keel over and die
30f is viable for shorts but only with a thick-ish jacket on upper body
I think you have it confused with -30C which is when put on a hoodie because the t-shirt isn’t enough anymore.
It’s 24c right now and I wish it was colder
Hot take: F is the superior temperature measurement for real people. If you are a scientist in a lab, sure, maybe referencing the state changes in water is useful for you somehow.
But for a normal person, 90% of the use of tempertature measurements is knowing what clothes to wear, and the other 10% is for setting oven temperatures. Oven temperatures are far hotter than waters boiling point, so F and C are equialvalently useful.
For knowing how to dress, however, F clearly has the advantage, as the numbers map to obvious temperature ranges. Ie,
100F = really fuckin hot
0F = really fuckin cold110 = really fucking hot
-10 = really fucking cold.
Yeah, really useful scale.
It is useful because you are used to it, it has no inherent better qualities over any other scale.
Eh -10 with no wind is shorts weather.
Temp is by it self an ass way to tell what to wear. You need wind humidity and temp to even remotely get an accurate idea.
Does the water outside not freeze at 0°C? Because that seems to be pretty useful info as in there‘s ice outside or not
0C = water freezes, 100C = water boils
If this isn’t more useful, tell me.
I’m not a water elemental for one. And two I ain’t cooking or doing chemistry.
So it’s a fucking worthless and useless data point.
F and C are both stupid relative scales that are equally shit for the exact same reasons. And neither are any better then the other. They both fucking suck. Just use the one every else around you uses so you are understood and arnt that asshole in the room being obtuse because you think your better then everyone else.
Unless yer giving the wind chill and humidity too, air temp is fucking pointless anyways.
Just say it’s hot, cold, nice out. It’s good e fucking nuff
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You are roughly 70% water
And our body temp is roughly 98.6 F/37 C. Logically that should be the ideal ambient temperature for us, right?
