this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2025
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TenForward: Where Every Vulcan Knows Your Name

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97
It always bugs me when a character makes this mistake, which happens WAY TOO OFTEN (quokk.au)
submitted 1 week ago by SatyrSack@quokk.au to c/tenforward@lemmy.world
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According to SI convention, the kelvin is never referred to nor written as a degree. The word "kelvin" is not capitalized when used as a unit. It may be in plural form as appropriate (for example, "it is 283 kelvins outside", as for "it is 50 degrees Fahrenheit" and "10 degrees Celsius").[5][63][64][65] The unit's symbol K is a capital letter,[39] per the SI convention to capitalize symbols of units derived from the name of a person.[66] It is common convention to capitalize Kelvin when referring to Lord Kelvin[5] or the Kelvin scale.[67]

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[–] queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zone 28 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

The SI convention can jump in a lake. K is too easy to confuse with the "kilo" suffix k, and the Kelvin was just a rebrand of the Celsius scale, which uses degrees, a convention so firmly intertwined with temperature measurements that in most contexts if you just say something is "X degrees" people will just assume are referring to degrees on a temperature scale (Fahrenheit or Celsius depending on where you live). Calling them degrees only increases the clarity of what you're talking about in both written and spoken contexts; I've never encountered a downside other than dorks protesting that that's not how it's supposed to go. °K gang for life.

[–] becausechemistry@lemy.lol 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

dorks

Some of us use the Kelvin scale on a nearly daily basis in our jobs that primarily focus on sweating the small details.

[–] SatyrSack@quokk.au 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

jobs that primarily focus on sweating the small details

Anyone with a job like that automatically qualifies as a "dork (complimentary)"

[–] queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I use the term with affection, I think it's that understanding of the importance of minutia to the shared understanding of complex topics that makes people engage on things like "K vs °K" in a serious way, and I think it's a conversation worth having. I don't use kelvins every day and I don't really think I'm an expert, I think despite my last little joke I could be convinced that saying "degrees kelvin" does more to confuse than it does to clarify: I think there are good reasons to adhere to conventions in certain contexts, especially scientific ones, so I think the upset about "degrees kelvin" comes from a sincere place, I just haven't seen any evidence to suggest that breaking the convention in this case causes any real confusion, and at least personally, using °K helps me distinguish kelvins from other uses of k or K suffixes or constants. So I guess it would be more accurate to say "°K gang for now given my understanding of the current body of evidence", but I wanted to be snappy.

[–] becausechemistry@lemy.lol 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I understand you’re not coming from a place of malice. But consider that not understanding why something is important is not a great reason to consider it unimportant if, nearly universally, experts consider it important.

[–] queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 week ago

I don't think it's unimportant. I think clarity and disambiguation in communication are more important than strict adherence to a convention, and as far as I can tell °K was folded into K because the temperature interval °K is identical to the thermodynamic temperature K and the CGPM picked K because it more correctly conforms to the SI convention of single-letter unit designations. I get why they combined them, but considering that °K is (or was) exactly equal to K I prefer to use it to typographically distinguish it from other k-types in my writing, especially if I'm writing equations by hand. I've been reading up on the CGPM proceedings around defining the K and I think there are good pedagogical reasons not to use °K when introducing the concept of thermodynamic temperature to students because it isn't a degree on a scale like Celsius, it's a plain old base unit just like any other. It may be that I'm just old enough to have been indoctrinated into the °K school of thought and now it's ingrained but in any case the visual distinction helps me and, since it is identical to K I don't think it introduces any new confusion. I probably wouldn't use it if I were teaching physics in high school but for my own use? °K all day.

[–] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I was taught as degrees Kelvin in middle school, (as well as degrees Rankini). Only in high school it was changed. Not sure if it was a change in standard or a correction in teaching.

[–] queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

According to Wikipedia it was officially changed from "degrees Kelvin" to "kelvins" in 1967, so it's possible you were seeing the change ripple out as they were made. I wonder how long it takes for decisions like that to get from a decision announcement from the CGPM to an update in textbooks that students use. Probably varies by income level.

[–] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 4 points 1 week ago

I'm sure the changes must be ratified at country level, which adds another significant layer of delay.

[–] negativenull@piefed.world 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

[–] data1701d@startrek.website 3 points 1 week ago

"IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII'LL TAKE YOU HOOOOOOEEEEEM AAAAAAAAAAAGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIN, KATHLEEN!"

[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I just like it when Data says “kilopascals.”

[–] SatyrSack@quokk.au 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Is there something special about his pronunciation or something?

[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

He says, "ki-lo-pas-i-cals."

[–] essell@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Yeah. Its just like that.

[–] Tattorack@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What's really annoying is that I can never find a way to convert centigrade to Celsius.

[–] SchwertImStein@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 week ago

went right over my head until I googled it

[–] autonomous@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 week ago

Worf's attention intensifies

[–] vzqq@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 week ago

You can never have enough Calvins.

And the only proper thermostat scale is kT in eV…

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 1 points 1 week ago

6 degrees of Melvin.

[–] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

This must be the Kelvin timeline I've heard so much about.