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Fahrenheit vs. Celsius vs. Kelvin
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this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2023
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Fun fact time, -40F is -40C.
And 575F is 575K
Fahrenheit is a strange scale.
It's just designed with a slightly different set of assumptions.
Instead of water freezing and boiling 100° apart, it's 180° in fahrenheit. That makes it so that they're on the opposite sides of a temperature gauge, and a degree of rotation of the gauge matches a degree of temperature.
Instead of zero being the freezing point of water under specific conditions, it's a brine solution whose temperature will stabilize in a way that's useful for using as a calibration point.
Stripped of its context, it's odd. But it's not irrational, just no longer consensus as the standard, and as such deprecated.
Fahrenheit makes sense for humans. Most of your day to day climates are in the 0 to 100 scale, and every 10 degrees is a noticeable level change.
Celsius makes sense for science stuff because it's derived from science stuff, so things like calories and energy work with it. But it doesn't really apply to everyday life as well. So it actually makes sense to use both units for the things the are good at.
It depends on what you were raised with. For me I have all these relevant points in my head for C. 25 is nice, under 20 you slowly need to dress longer stuff. Over 30 is hot, over 40 sucks hard, over 50 can become deadly soon. Body temp is around 37.
I don't science anymore, but living in a F country, I keep in mind for conversions:
0C is freezing point of water ~32F 20-22C is room temp ~68-72F 30C+ is Unhappy temperatures/hot.
Really only things I need to remember, and gradient based off of. It can get up to 45C where I live, but that would never be important to me. I hate the heat, if it's 30C+, the degree to which it is hot matters little, I'm going to just want to stay out of the sun or go inside.
A F country? You can just say the US, I doubt it'd be Cayman Islands or Liberia lol.
Here 70F is perfect weather. For reference we set our a/c at 68 at night and it's literally freezing cold if you walk though in your underwear. Any hotter and you'll need to start dressing in lighter stuff. Any colder and you might wanna wear a flannel. Hell my house stays at 72 all day and it's perfect.
Being from outside of the US I'm used to Celsius for everything, so I can make the same list, the numbers are just not whole 10s and I would probably round to nearest 5.
They probably don't understand numbers not ending in 0.
Just an fyi, 100F is not “unsafe without counter measures” level of hot. That would be around 115+F. I say this as someone from a city that regularly hits 120F during the summer. 100 you can still get in your car, 115+ you need to wear gloves or else you’ll get 3rd degree burns. 100 have to buy pizza for lunch, 115+ just bake a pizza in your car.
That's why they added the word "approaching"
I work outside in the Texas sun. 100F is unsurvivable without regular water intake and regular breaks. That would literally define it as unsafe without counter measures. You're talking about walking to your car. We're talking about actually being in it. Like playing a sport or fishing. 110 here means you can only work in short 15-20 minute bursts. 100 and you're sweating so profusely your entire shirt Is soaked. At 90 it's warm and a little toasty. At 80 it feels pretty good out. At 70 is literally the perfect temperature. 60 starts to get a bit on the chill side. 50 is light jacket weather. 40 is heavier jacket weather. 30 is a winter coat and multiple layers. Works just fine for us. If you don't like it then don't use it. I don't even know why this argument is so prevalent. It's not complicated like y'all would like everyone to believe.
Yeah, I was using getting into your car as an example because our burn center has to put out a warning every year due to people literally burning their hand off getting into their car. Like I said, my state regularly gets to 120 in the summer. Texas rarely gets that hot. I’ve already stated in my previous comment that you’d need to drink more water, but it’s not going to fucking kill you. Hell, during summer we are lucky if it gets below 105 at night. You’re being really dramatic with the whole “my shirt is soaked in sweat!!” When you obviously live in a humid area. It being 70 in Florida will get you the same results. Like seriously, 100 ain’t shit, yeah drink more water, but you don’t need to stop every 2 minutes for a water break. 110 here means construction crews stop working at 2 instead of 6, and no there are no 10-15 increments of working. You shouldn’t only be drinking water, which will make you sick, anyways. You should also have an intake of oral salts to balance everything out. And it will prolong your need for water. And for the record, I was homeless for years so I have literally lived in the heat and seen countless people die from exposure. No one ever died when it was 100 out.
That's cute. You do know there are other places in the world rather than your tiny little bubble, right? 38ºC (100ºF for those stuck in the past) is a regular hot summer day in most of Brazil.
Humans adapt to temperature, if you took someone who lives in greenland and put them in the Sahara desert they'd probably die faster than someone from around there
It's funny to assume that all people using Celsius are unable to ascertain how they will feel outside based on the temperature value.
I mean, I understand that round numbers are cute, but we are able to handle numbers ending in 5 as well as numbers ending in 0.
Somebody's from the north. Even as warm blooded as I am 80 is a nice day and 90 is just annoyingly hot.
why are you being so heavily downvoted? you're not even saying anything controversial.
Because it assumes that using Celsius makes the same estimations impossible. It's basically telling most of the world that we outside the US are stupid.
Curious, how easy is it for you to understand what X°F is?
I don't have the need to know it. But the comfort of rubes is not a reason to persist in a backward unit.
But again, the US is such a backward and sick country in so many other ways, that is even better they keep acting backwards. It's a reminder to the rest of the world to keep our distance.
That’s not particularly nice. I said nothing ill against you, and I feel it’d be implied by my question that I am one of the “rubes” you’re speaking of. Such an unwarranted jab.
And wishing for the suffering of 300,000,000 people is cruel.
I'll tell you what: when your country stops destroying other countries (including mine) for profit, I'll see if I can develop any empathy for you. Until then, you don't deserve it.
Google "XF to C". That easy.
Every time. I never use freedom units so if I read some reference points I'll forget them by the time I read the next freedom unit. I only know my height and what an inch is because of phones and screens.
Feet are not intuitive at all either, my gf has 5 on the US scale and I have 13.5, one is 22cm and the other is 31cm. That's a huge margin on what the us feet unit actually is. Turns out that feet are 30.48cm, so basically my feet is actually a us feet, yay. I'll forget this tomorrow. cm is arbitrary too, yeah, but at least it has the ease of conversion.
And at what temperatures are C and K equal?
Never. They use the same spacing between degrees. The Kelvin scale was derived from the Celsius scale, just placing the 0° at absolute zero rather than at the freezing point of water.