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Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by anamexis on Friday November 16, 2018 @07:25PM (#18473057)
For most things, I think metric makes more sense, but I fully agree about temperatures. Fahrenheit is a superior scale for humans.
Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by Terr_ on Friday November 16, 2018 @08:01PM (#18473235)
While having a "wider spread" of "today's forecast" numbers is nice, that 32-degree offset is a huge negative ding against it.

I mean, there's a big important point where you start getting solid things falling on your head and slick icy roads and ruined fruit-plants, so it ought to be at more meaningful spot, like 0.

Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by kmm on Friday November 16, 2018 @08:56PM (#18473443)
I can just barely feel the difference of temperature of one degree Celsius. I really don't feel multiplying that by 1.8 will make a big difference in how good a scale it is for humans.
Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by bkanber on Friday November 16, 2018 @09:43PM (#18473608)
As an example, the common temperatures in NYC range from 0-100F. In celcius that's like -18 to +38.

I'm a scientist and an engineer, and in those applications C is often better. But in daily life, Fahrenheit makes a ton of sense.

Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by evil-olive on Friday November 16, 2018 @11:16PM (#18473913)
Just think about it by 10s, as you do with the metric system:

20 C - a bit less than room temperature (68 F)

30 C - pretty hot (86 F)

40 C - very hot (104 F)

And going the other way:

10 C - a bit chilly (50 F)

0 C - cold (32 F)

-10 C - real cold (14 F)

-20 C - really really cold (-4 F)

When you hear a temperature in Celsius, don't try to convert it to Fahrenheit, just think in Celsius. 15 degrees is halfway between "chilly" 10 C and "room temp" 20 C. One degree of warming - say 26 C to 27 C - is pretty easy to conceptualize when you have those 10-degree reference points.

Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by bnjms on Saturday November 17, 2018 @12:29AM (#18474121)
This is the right answer for Americans. The reason I prefer Fahrenheit is because it is the one I know what degrees feel like and because Celsius isn’t reported in enough resolution.

If it was always reported to the half point I think we would be able to relate to Celsius better. And if I was making a population wide change I’d ensure reporting was always to the half degree.

Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by stephen_g on Saturday November 17, 2018 @02:58AM (#18474532)
We just report it to the degree (high of 34 tomorrow, 32 the next day). That's really plenty of resolution for non-scientific measurement.
Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by kiriakasis on Saturday November 17, 2018 @06:37AM (#18475074)
And is also more resolution than the error warrants
Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by bnjms on Saturday November 17, 2018 @01:49PM (#18476791)
I think I meant less for forecasts and more for weather apps and thermostats. I really think it could help with adoption. But if it’s not warranted by the error then maybe I’ll reconsider.
Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by Moru on Saturday November 17, 2018 @05:44PM (#18477764)
The precision on most digital thermometers for home use is (surprice) +-1 degree C :-)
Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by int_19h on Friday November 16, 2018 @10:05PM (#18473681)
If you live in NYC, maybe. A lot of people don't, and you can find places where ranges in C are "neater" than in F.
Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by umanwizard on Saturday November 17, 2018 @01:56AM (#18474358)
> If you live in NYC, maybe. A lot of people don't

Those people are free to use whatever units they like. It doesn't have much bearing on the point that Fahrenheit, which is used in the United States, is a good match for the climate of most of the United States.

Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by int_19h on Sunday November 18, 2018 @04:46AM (#18479579)
Most of the United States doesn't have climate that falls within 0..100 F. There are plenty of places that are more like 30..90 F etc. And I don't see how that's any different from, say, 0..30 C.

OTOH, as far as weather goes, C has the nice property that anything below zero is freezing temperature. In any locale where snow and ice is a thing, that's handy to know.

Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by redial on Friday November 16, 2018 @10:35PM (#18473778)
In Ecuador the temperature ranges from ~60 to ~90F, but I'm sure for them is a great relief to know people of New York have a temperature unit that perfectly matches their climate as neatly as going from 0 to 100.
Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by anamexis on Friday November 16, 2018 @11:16PM (#18473914)
But is 15C to 32C better?
Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by jnurmine on Saturday November 17, 2018 @10:50AM (#18475954)
When it is 0 C, you can expect ice/snow outside.

Yesterday it was +20 C, today it is +25 C, so it is noticeably warmer.

-10 C tomorrow, so you'll need your woolen cap and padded jacket. -20 C and add a layer of underwear underneath and maybe a scarf.

When you boil water for tea (100 C) and don't want the water boiling but still hot, aim for 95 C.

When the inner temperature of salmon is +46 C, it is perfect, if it is +56 C or more, it is thoroughly cooked and will not taste soft anymore.

Usually the relevant difference is 5 or 10 degrees.

I don't even want to think what those examples could be as Fahrenheit.

My point is it is eventually a matter of what you are used to, but Celsius is more logical, because it is directly tied to water freezing and boiling.

For the most logical measurements we'd use Kelvin, but it is not practical! "Oh, it is 273.15 K outside, might be black ice on the roads"

Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by jakelazaroff on Friday November 16, 2018 @07:38PM (#18473127)
Co-signed! The freezing and boiling points of water are also not particularly pragmatic points of reference. I don't think "I need to lower this to 0°", I think "I need to put this in the freezer".
Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by Terr_ on Friday November 16, 2018 @08:02PM (#18473238)
> The freezing and boiling points of water are also not particularly pragmatic points of reference.

I must strongly disagree.

The freezing point of water is an incredibly important and pragmatic point of reference for hundreds of millions of people around the world, who live in places where water can freeze (or thaw) on its own outdoors. Not just for transportation, but also its affect on biology in agriculture.

While the boiling point is (thankfully) not important for weather-reports... Cooking! What would you do if I said to "simmer" something? You aren't supposed to go high enough to reach the obvious boiling point, so how are you supposed to know when you're close enough if you can't remember the magic number?

Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by anamexis on Friday November 16, 2018 @08:41PM (#18473391)
I'll concede that freezing is very important to a lot of people, but at the same time, I don't think it's particularly onerous to remember that the freezing point is 32 degrees.

As far as boiling and cooking, I would argue that there is no magic number anyways, since boiling point is variable by elevation. At 7500 feet / ~2250 meters, water boils at 198°F.

Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by evil-olive on Friday November 16, 2018 @11:32PM (#18473958)
> As far as boiling and cooking, I would argue that there is no magic number anyways, since boiling point is variable by elevation. At 7500 feet / ~2250 meters, water boils at 198°F.

That's an excellent point, let's examine the relationship between altitude and boiling point, in both American units and everywhere-else-in-the-world units [0]:

5000 feet -> 202.97 F

7500 feet -> 198.33

10000 feet -> 193.6 F

Compared to:

1000 meters -> 96.73 C

2000 meters -> 93.38 C

3000 meters -> 89.95 C

In both cases, the boiling points at altitude are magic numbers. The difference is that with Celsius, you can interpret degrees as "percentage of the way from freezing to boiling". Going from 100 C at 0 meters to 90 C at 3000 meters is immediately meaningful as a 10% decrease. With degrees Fahrenheit, that same 10% drop in boiling temperature that happens at around 3000 meters / 10,000 feet is 212 F to 194 F.

0: https://www.omnicalculator.com/chemistry/boiling-point-altit...

Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by sjy on Saturday November 17, 2018 @09:01AM (#18475548)
If going from 100 °C to 90 °C was a 10% decrease, then going from 0 °C to 1 °C would be an ∞% increase. Metric units are superior to imperial for many reasons, but this isn’t one of them.
Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by gspetr on Saturday November 17, 2018 @12:12AM (#18474075)
Excellent point.

100 -> 90 is 10% decrease.

212 -> 194 is ~8.5% decrease (and I had to go out of my way to count that).

Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by atoav on Saturday November 17, 2018 @05:10AM (#18474851)
Also: Celsius converts easier to Kelvin which is sometimes useful
Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by hexane360 on Saturday November 17, 2018 @06:08PM (#18477890)
Good thing Fahrenheit's got pragmatic points of reference, like. . . the freezing point of brine water and almost the body temperature of human [1].

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit#History