this post was submitted on 29 Dec 2023
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No it's not.
What makes 0°F (-17,7°C) special for a human body? Is it the limit after which we don't feel any colder? No.
And what makes 100°F (37,7°C) special? Maybe we can't feel any hotter? No, we can. Is it the body temperature? No. What is it?
Maybe 50°F (10°C) is perfect? Nah, cold!
If we change 0°F to, say, 0°C and 100°F to 40°C, does it change the notion that 0°F is very cold for a human body and that 100°F is very hot? No, and as a bonus you get 50°F equaling that perfect 20°C.
Fahrenheit scale is super arbitrary and it's hilarious when it is posed as a "human-centric" scale. At the same time, the concept of Fahrenheit scale is unnecessarily complicated and the notion between Celsius is extremely clear - you can easily calibrate Celsius thermometer with nothing but kettle and freezer, right at home, right now.
Also,
Simple enough.
The Fahrenheit scale is literally based on what was thought to be the limits of human comfort though. 0° F started as the lowest measured temperature in Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit's hometown, and 100° F was his estimate of normal human body temperature.
You think it's arbitrary because you're used to a different scale. To me, having a scale go from 0C to 40C seems arbitrary, especially because I live in an area where for 3 months out of the year, it's constantly below 0C, and it's critical to know the difference between -5C and -15C, rather than just lumping them both into the same "sub-zero" category. I'm the same vein, categorizing 10C as "jacket weather" is borderline useless. The "jacket" I'm going to wear at 10C is much heavier than the one I'm going to wear at 17C (if I wear one at all), for example.
By the way, you can do the exact same breakdown of the Fahrenheit scale, except it's more than twice as granular, and it goes from 0 to 100, like a bunch of other metric measurements... It boggles my mind when metric users use the 0 to 40 Celsius scale up as an argument against Fahrenheit.
You just described the difference between -5C and -15C without any difficulty at all. The rest of the world uses Celsius. There's zero actual tangible benefit to using fahrenheit. The US doesn't have any economic, social, political, technological, artistic, or theological advantage because they use fahrenheit.
It's what you're used to. That's it. That's the only reason you would like it. It's fine to say that. "It would be a pain in the arse for a few years adjusting the nation to using Celsius" is fine as your reasoning for liking it.
The UK finally fully switched from imperial weights/volumes for goods to metric in '95. Some people kicked up a fuss for a while about it, but a recent poll showed that 98% of people don't want to bring imperial back.
All the arguments that dragged on for years about how difficult and confusing it would be to use unfamiliar units were worthless drivel. Buying a 450g package of mince instead of a 1lbs package of mince is something you get used to insanely quickly unless you're a moron. If the US decided to switch to Celsius you'd have a bunch of people kicking off, but life would go on and after a while no one would want to switch back anymore.
After converting to Fahrenheit lol.
That's kind of my whole point. It's what I'm used to, and you listing out the Celsius scale breakdown isn't going to convince me to want to use Celsius for everyday uses. Of course I could get used to it, but it would take a wholesale, nationwide switch, just like it took the UK. Until then, telling me how much better Celsius is is just pissing into the wind, and honestly, a little underinformed.
I haven't listed any scales. That was someone else. I just chipped in to point out that arguing about scales or which one is better is pointless. You like what you're used to, which as I said I'd fine, it's just dumb to be passionate about something that's arbitrary. The only reason other people are trying to convince you that Celsius is fine it's because it's pointless for humanity as a whole to have different measurement units in different countries.
At some point the people living in the middle of the North American continent will have to switch, it might be 1000 years from now but the standardisation will come eventually. There will be loads of people like you complaining, but then once the switch happens it'll be absolutely fine and nothing of value will be lost. All the arguing that will happen between then and now about which system is better will have been pointless.
Seconding this.
The reason we even care is that maintaining two systems is heavily impractical and adds to confusion all around the world - simply because 4% of world's population can't bother to make a change.
We wouldn't care what you use - perfect barbecue temperature scale, length unit of football field, weights in blue whales - if it wouldn't affect the rest 96% of the world who have to decipher your blubber.
Everyone uses Celsius and metric, make a damn switch, it's not that hard and you won't lose anything. You only use it because you've used to it, there is literally nothing else to it. Everyone switched, everyone's happy with it. Do it already.
P.S. Also, Fahrenheit is currently officially defined through Celsius, as a scale that is at 32 degrees on melting point of water (0°C), and 212 degrees on its boiling point (100°C).
Let it sink in.
Fahrenheit is modernly defined through Celsius.
Fahrenheit's hometown is certainly the metric everyone should use /s
Celsius is not arbitrary, it is based on objective physical reality, and the only arbitrary thing about it is atmospheric pressure, which is more or less equal on the sea level. The rest is us finding convenient patterns, not the other way around. 0-40 is not a scale, it's an arbitrary range and adaptation of Celsius to subjective feelings of hot and cold - one that you ironically need for Fahrenheit, too. Actual thermometers normally go -50°C to +50°C.
On sub-zero, it is the same idea: -5°C is a weather for a light winter jacket, -15°C is a weather for a heavy winter jacket, -25°C is for heavy jacket and some pullover, etc etc.
The 0-40 argument demonstrates that we don't need some arbitrary scale based on Fahrenheit's recording in his hometown in order to conveniently estimate temperature. The groups for each dozen of degrees are just for easy reference. 17 degrees is optional for your taste, to me it's light jacket weather in overcast or t-shirt weather when sunny. There are no perfect temperatures for anything and anyone, and it just doesn't make sense to get into more detail.
As per granularity, people invented decimals, but normally it's simply not necessary to tell the difference between 17°C and 18°C, let alone between 63°F and 64°F. There are so many factors influencing the temperature feeling, and one degree ain't one.