Decreasing human body temperature in the U.S. since the industrial revolution

Re:Decreasing human body temperature in the U.S. since the i... by TallGuyShort on Thursday January 09, 2020 @12:15PM (#22003133)

98°F is a common reference, and that is about 36.6°C. 98.6°F is a more precise (not necessarily accurate - I don't know either way) measurement that I hear, and that's exactly 37°F.

I wouldn't be surprised if 36.6 is correct, people rounded that up to 37, converted to Fahrenheit, and we just converted back to Celsius.

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Re:Decreasing human body temperature in the U.S. since the i... by jfengel on Thursday January 09, 2020 @01:39PM (#22004063)

98.6°F is an over-precise conversion of 37°C. The number was originally measured as 37°C, with two digits of precision. It shouldn't have been reported as 98.6°F, though a correct rounding would have been even less accurate: the number is closer to 98.2°F/36.8°C, but the proper rounding of the conversion would have rounded up to 99°F.

There is, of course, significant variation from person to person, so two digits of precision is probably all that's really appropriate.

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