this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2023
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Someone should set up a new "shitamericanssay"
there are 2 countries in the world that use Fahrenheit I know off the top of my head.
- USA
- Liberia (Used to be USA colony. Slaves were sent there after they were freed after the civil war)
More than 1 country in the world is retarded
Some older people in the UK still prefer Fahrenheit, Celsius is still the official/default unit however.
A politician here recently tried to promote returning the UK to Imperial units, it has gone nowhere so far.
Yes, because the suggestion made everyone laugh hysterically, even here in Australia lol.
Are you serious? That's pretty funny!
It does seem superior for the weather and cooking.
Having the weather between 50-100 instead of 10-40 kind of makes sense.
And for the cooking, having the steak temperature at 130-135 or 135-145 is clearer than 54-57 or 57-63.
Not that I’d think it would make sense to change, but it just seems plain stupid how we like to pretend the imperial system would be inferior and stupid.
Oh yeah that's why it freezes at a random 32 degrees. I generally live between -30 C and +30 C.
The whole world swapped to metric for a reason.
I had once heard described that fahrenheit's best feature is that you can go "oh, 1-100, 'sheesh, that's really cold!' to 'hoof, that's pretty hot!'" and yeah, while I was in the US where most temperatures (RIP Florida) change all the time, that sure was convenient.
However, living in a country that always stays in the 80-100 range, the 'oh fuck, the water's freezing' to 'oh fuck, the heat death of the sun is upon us' range is a MUCH more useful scale to knowing if we've been struck by some sort of apocalyptic event today
I live in the United States and although I grew up here using Fahrenheit, I switched to Celsius almost 10 years ago. Part of my reason for switching was the rest of the world was using Celsius and every time they would mention the temperature, I had no clue if that was very hot, or just right and kept having to convert, so since there were not that many countries that used Fahrenheit, I switched. I still know what the comfortable range is in Fahrenheit, but now I also know in Celsius as I use it every day. Also, I no longer appear to be an old curmudgeon that is resistant to using a system the rest of the world already uses.
I did exactly this but with 24 hour clock lol
Having the freezing point of water be at 0 instead of 32 just makes infinitely more sense.
Fahrenheit's 0 is the freezing point of water - salt water that is. Not that I think it's better, just that there was some thought put into it.
It... isn't. That would change wildly depending on which sea/ocean you get your saltwater from (more salt = colder freezing point).
It really is defined relative to a very specific brine mixture (in the most scientifically generous origin story - some say he literally just measured the coldest winter day he could). Well except it isn't anyway, because like all US units nowadays it's defined against metric units (namely the Kelvin, just like 0°C is actually defined to be 273.15 K).
There is no freezing point of salt water. Cause water can have a very small or very large amount of salt in it. There isn't even a "default" amount of salt that's just assumed.
US centrism summed up.
!ShitAmericansSay
Absolutely no one
I like to refer to them as Freedom units and Communist units (in jest, obviously). I will say, though, that Fahrenheit feels like a more precise scale for measuring temperature even if the units are goofy.
I don't get the precision argument. It really doesn't matter for personal use because you wouldn't feel the difference anyways and if you really needed it to be as precise as possible (for... I don't know, science) you'd use decimals. And if you're sciencing, you'd use the system that allows easy conversion, which is metric.
What additional arguments besides personal experience would you give to back this precision claim?
Temperature scales are arbitrary by nature, and the criteria behind their definition can be useful or not. Fahrenheit's isn't that much useful compared to Celsius' or Kelvin's.
I'm not arguing on Fahrenheit's behalf or saying it IS more precise. I just said it "feels" more precise because you have finer increments in whole numbers. 70 degrees F is about 21 degrees C while 90 degrees F is about 32 degrees. 20 degrees of increment in F versus 12 in C which feels more precise. It's the same way metric length measurements feel more precise because there are whole number millimeters rather than fractional inches.
I have no strong opinion any one way, other than I feel like everyone should endeavor to be comfortable converting between various systems of measurement.
You can simply use as many decimals you want to make Celsius more precise. You don't see it used in general because it really isn't needed.
The little digital thermometers I have around the house read to one decimal place. The precision argument is just bizarre.
F is kinda nice for weather as a scale of 1 to 100 of really cold feeling to really hot feeling. But for anything scientific or calibration related, C is great
Disagree. Celsius is super helpful for determining if it's gonna snow or not, a key weather thing where I live. Humid and cold and below 0? Snow. Humid and cold and above 0? Rain or freezing rain.
Also helps with plants. Below 0? Frost.
I'd argue you can't get more intuitive than 0 is cold, below 0 is very cold. Celsius also plays nice with round numbers, every 5 or 10 degrees is a change in feeling. 0 is cold, 5 out is cooler, 10 out is cool, 15 is moderate, 20 is comfortable, 25 is room and warm, 30 is hot, 35+ is very hot. Every ten degrees we're doing big changes. 0 is frozen, 10 is cool, 20 is comfortable, 30 is hot. 32 being frozen doesn't feel as intuitive.
Fahrenheit is better. Fight me
It's not like something fundamentally changes at a logical 0 C. Oh wait. Well it's not like it falls from the sky. Oh wait.
Ha! You can't just say "fight me" and then disappear! What are your arguments?
The range for livable temperatures follows a more reasonable scale. Hot is really high numbers. Cold is low. The exact temperature is more precise because the range is larger.
Celsius is fine for scientists but for the regular person Fahrenheit has a better range.
Also I'm biased.
I'm also biased.
But:
- Celsius is easy to understand, even for children: water freezes at 0°C, boils at 100°C.
- It is understood by more people in the world.
- If the US used Celsius, understanding scientific papers and data would be easier for common people.
- In Celsius, the range of livable temperatures for humans (-20 to 40°C) still gives plenty of precision. Additionally, each step in the Celsius scale corresponds to a bigger change in "feel" of the temperature, which leads to a more intuitive understanding of temperature changes.
Your first 3 points, I can agree with. We will have to agree to disagree on the last one.
Can you feel the difference between 73F and 75F? No, you can't, don't lie.
I don't care how many football fields worth of sun we'll get today.
Fahrenheit is better for weather, and I'll fight anyone about it.
We use Celsius in the lab because it makes math easier, it's great.
But Fahrenheit is basically a 0-100 scale of how hot it is outside and that makes perfect sense for describing outside conditions relative to human sensory perception.
Fahrenheit is better for weather
You're just used to it. The rest of the world have 0 problems using it for weather.
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