Am I crazy for thinking that Fahrenheit is a way more user-friendly system than Celsius when it comes to everyday life? 0 (very cold) to 100 (very hot) is superior to −20 (very cold) to 40 (very hot) both in having more granularity with its whole numbers and being a nice round range to deal with. Also, “Below 0” sounds way cooler (pun intended) than “Below −20.”
Whenever I bring this up to any friends of mine, their immediate counterargument is “But almost every single other country in the world uses Celsius!”, which obviously doesn’t contradict my point at all.
Are there any actual good arguments in favor of Celsius? The temperature at which water freezes and boils just seems like such an arbitrary thing to go off of.
I used Celsius all my life and I feel it as most natural and effective scale. If it is above 0 C I will take my umbrella. If below, I will take care about my winter shoes.
I think it is more about personal adaptation than about actual usefulness of the scale.
It’s all arbitrary, and what’s most comfortable is what you use most. Fahrenheit is more sensible if you only talk about weather, celcius (or kelvin) is way better if you do any energy calculations.
When I lived in °C places I had to pay attention to single-digit
differences like 24 °C versus 29 °C, wasting the first digit.
[...]
In Fahrenheit I get the basic idea with the first digit.
“It’s in the thirties” = multiple layers and coat.
“It’s in the nineties” = T shirt weather.
In the 70’s and 80’s I want a second sig-fig but I don’t even need 10
elements of precision. Just “upper 70’s” is enough. The first °F digit
gives you ballpark, and the second °F digit gives you even more
precision than you need.
I do think it’s a difference between whether my flat is heated at 20 C or 22 C.
The range between 0 and 100 might map the weather better but there’s a lot of temperature that I care about that’s not weather. If I drink tea the second digit doesn’t matter. There are water cookers that provide either 60, 70, 80, 90 or 100 degrees and that maps well to real world differences.
Remembering that water freezes and boils and 32 degree and 212 degree is harder then remembering that it boils at 0 and 100.
The temperature at which water freezes and boils just seems like such an arbitrary thing to go off of.
The great thing about those numbers is that they are objective references points. Fahrenheit defined temperature by referring to the ‘average human body temperature’ which isn’t a physical constant in the same sense as boiling temperature of water.
Today the Fahrenheit scale is also defined over when water freezes and boils but at 32 degree and 212 degree. The difference is a clear 180 which is a round number if you think in base 60, but thinking in base 10 is a lot easier than thinking in base 60.
Whether or not water freezes has a lot of effects on the weather. When deciding whether to walk about a frozen lake the amount of days that the weather was below 0 matters. For gardering it matters whether the soil freezes.
I can’t remember a use case where I would have wanted more granularity in my temperature scale then Celsius provides. When making sure that tea I drink is at 55 degree Celsius I would however need three digits to represent the temperature.
Better compatibility with other SI units also matters.
Whether or not water freezes has a lot of effects on the weather. When deciding whether to walk about a frozen lake the amount of days that the weather was below 0 matters. For gardering it matters whether the soil freezes.
This is a good point; using 0 as a reference point for freezing, which does have real life applications (is it going to snow? will this morning’s rain cause icy roads? etc.) is much less arbitrary than how it’s used on the Fahrenheit scale. I suppose boiling has cooking applications as well?
The granularity point is interesting; in the US, setting a building’s thermostat to 68 degrees Fahrenheit vs. 66 degrees Fahrenheit is typically considered a pretty non-arbitrary decision as far as saving money vs. gaining comfort goes. Now that I actually stop and think about it though, if you asked me to guess what temperature a building I’m currently in’s thermostat was set at, I’m not sure I’d actually be able to tell you.
In fact, I’m not sure I could even consistently guess what temperature the air around me is without being at least 5 degrees Fahrenheit off. Now that you point it out to me, less granularity probably makes life a bit simpler.
The granularity point is interesting; in the US, setting a building’s thermostat to 68 degrees Fahrenheit vs. 66 degrees Fahrenheit is typically considered a pretty non-arbitrary decision as far as saving money vs. gaining comfort goes.
Plenty of Celsius thermostats can be set to within a tenth of degree (not that I know anybody who ever sets the tenths’ digit to anything other than 0 or 5).
If you want an imperial scale that is more definitely “human friendly” I would look at length. Measured in inches are things you manipulate with your hands -- 1 inch = one finger. Measured in feet are things you carry. Yards (plural) are too big to carry, bit you can measure them out by walking (1 stride = 1 yard).
Or liquids, where gallons, pints, and quarts are factors of 2 separated from each other—you break one unit into the other by (recursively) pouring into two equal sized containers, and leveling out.
Those are some pretty unfortunate fingers that you have.
Measured in feet are things you carry. Yards (plural) are too big to carry
That’s… a big stretch X-)
gallons, pints, and quarts are factors of 2 separated from each other
Except, well, y’know, there are four quarts in a gallon, them being quarters. Not to mention that there is e.g. a US quart, an Imperial quart, and a dry quart. They are all different, of course. And don’t get me started about half-pints which are cups)...
Am I crazy for thinking that Fahrenheit is a way more user-friendly system than Celsius when it comes to everyday life? 0 (very cold) to 100 (very hot) is superior to −20 (very cold) to 40 (very hot) both in having more granularity with its whole numbers and being a nice round range to deal with. Also, “Below 0” sounds way cooler (pun intended) than “Below −20.”
Whenever I bring this up to any friends of mine, their immediate counterargument is “But almost every single other country in the world uses Celsius!”, which obviously doesn’t contradict my point at all.
Are there any actual good arguments in favor of Celsius? The temperature at which water freezes and boils just seems like such an arbitrary thing to go off of.
I used Celsius all my life and I feel it as most natural and effective scale. If it is above 0 C I will take my umbrella. If below, I will take care about my winter shoes.
I think it is more about personal adaptation than about actual usefulness of the scale.
It’s all arbitrary, and what’s most comfortable is what you use most. Fahrenheit is more sensible if you only talk about weather, celcius (or kelvin) is way better if you do any energy calculations.
Why?
—http://isomorphism.es/post/3767526267/fahrenheit-versus-celsius
I do think it’s a difference between whether my flat is heated at 20 C or 22 C.
The range between 0 and 100 might map the weather better but there’s a lot of temperature that I care about that’s not weather. If I drink tea the second digit doesn’t matter. There are water cookers that provide either 60, 70, 80, 90 or 100 degrees and that maps well to real world differences.
Remembering that water freezes and boils and 32 degree and 212 degree is harder then remembering that it boils at 0 and 100.
The great thing about those numbers is that they are objective references points. Fahrenheit defined temperature by referring to the ‘average human body temperature’ which isn’t a physical constant in the same sense as boiling temperature of water.
Today the Fahrenheit scale is also defined over when water freezes and boils but at 32 degree and 212 degree. The difference is a clear 180 which is a round number if you think in base 60, but thinking in base 10 is a lot easier than thinking in base 60.
Whether or not water freezes has a lot of effects on the weather. When deciding whether to walk about a frozen lake the amount of days that the weather was below 0 matters. For gardering it matters whether the soil freezes.
I can’t remember a use case where I would have wanted more granularity in my temperature scale then Celsius provides. When making sure that tea I drink is at 55 degree Celsius I would however need three digits to represent the temperature.
Better compatibility with other SI units also matters.
This is a good point; using 0 as a reference point for freezing, which does have real life applications (is it going to snow? will this morning’s rain cause icy roads? etc.) is much less arbitrary than how it’s used on the Fahrenheit scale. I suppose boiling has cooking applications as well?
The granularity point is interesting; in the US, setting a building’s thermostat to 68 degrees Fahrenheit vs. 66 degrees Fahrenheit is typically considered a pretty non-arbitrary decision as far as saving money vs. gaining comfort goes. Now that I actually stop and think about it though, if you asked me to guess what temperature a building I’m currently in’s thermostat was set at, I’m not sure I’d actually be able to tell you.
In fact, I’m not sure I could even consistently guess what temperature the air around me is without being at least 5 degrees Fahrenheit off. Now that you point it out to me, less granularity probably makes life a bit simpler.
Plenty of Celsius thermostats can be set to within a tenth of degree (not that I know anybody who ever sets the tenths’ digit to anything other than 0 or 5).
If you want an imperial scale that is more definitely “human friendly” I would look at length. Measured in inches are things you manipulate with your hands -- 1 inch = one finger. Measured in feet are things you carry. Yards (plural) are too big to carry, bit you can measure them out by walking (1 stride = 1 yard).
Or liquids, where gallons, pints, and quarts are factors of 2 separated from each other—you break one unit into the other by (recursively) pouring into two equal sized containers, and leveling out.
Those are some pretty unfortunate fingers that you have.
That’s… a big stretch X-)
Except, well, y’know, there are four quarts in a gallon, them being quarters. Not to mention that there is e.g. a US quart, an Imperial quart, and a dry quart. They are all different, of course. And don’t get me started about half-pints which are cups)...
Width.
4 = 2*2. You divide things in half twice.
Your fingers are an inch wide..? My comment stands :-P
For your edification, the inch is supposed to be the distance between the knuckle and the tip of the thumb.