U.S. eyes building nuclear power plants on the moon, Mars

Re:U.S. eyes building nuclear power plants on the moon, Mars by User23 on Sunday July 26, 2020 @12:26PM (#23958167)

The USA more or less fully adopted the metric system in the 90s. All food is labeled in metric units for example. We just never abandoned imperial weights and measures. This leads to some amusing things like large bottles of soda and wine being measured in metric, while cans are measured in ounces. Then again we're not alone. The UK is considered officially metric, but they still pour beer in pints and weigh people in stone.

There are good arguments to be made for everyday use of Fahrenheit over Celsius. The 0-100 range in F cover pretty much all of the temperatures one is likely to experience in the USA. It also has a finer resolution than degrees Celsius in everyday weather temperature ranges.

The SI units are designed for scientific and engineering use and they excel for the purpose they are designed.

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Re:U.S. eyes building nuclear power plants on the moon, Mars by dguest on Sunday July 26, 2020 @03:29PM (#23959507)

> There are good arguments to be made for everyday use of Fahrenheit over Celsius. The 0-100 range in F cover pretty much all of the temperatures one is likely to experience in the USA.

You're mostly right, but there are plenty of places in the US where the daily low temperature drops well below zero for significant parts of the year.

I guess the inconvenience with Celsius is that you're more likely to go to negative numbers? Is there a problem other than the having to say "minus ten degrees" vs "fourteen degrees"?

> It also has a finer resolution than degrees Celsius in everyday weather temperature ranges.

I'd make the opposite argument about everyday use. Most people I know would barely differentiate 25C from 26C, so there's not really a need for finer gradations. And the 10 degree increments are surprisingly convenient:

   -20 (or less)    dangerously cold
   -10 -- -20       damn cold
   -10 --  0        winter
    0  --  10       chilly
    10 --  20       brisk
    20 --  30       hot
    30 --  40       sweltering
    40 --  50       damn hot
    50 (or more)    dangerously hot

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Re:U.S. eyes building nuclear power plants on the moon, Mars by User23 on Sunday July 26, 2020 @03:42PM (#23959604)

I like that table, and when I’ve been in Europe it’s pretty much what I’ve used. Oddly though while 30 degrees in southern Germany feels unbearably hot, 86 degrees in southern California is warmer than ideal, but not what I’d call scorching. I wonder to what extent it’s physical factors besides temperature and if there is a psychological effect from the temperature scales.

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Re:U.S. eyes building nuclear power plants on the moon, Mars by wongarsu on Sunday July 26, 2020 @07:35PM (#23960974)

Humidity is a major factor. We cool our body below ambient temperature through evaporation cooling (sweat), which works much better in dry air.

From experience I'd say a sauna with 45°C and 80% humidity is about comparable with one at 80°C and 10% humidity.

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Re:U.S. eyes building nuclear power plants on the moon, Mars by mr_toad on Sunday July 26, 2020 @09:49PM (#23961624)

Most beer pints are not a full pint. And they keep getting smaller!

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Re:U.S. eyes building nuclear power plants on the moon, Mars by ngcc_hk on Sunday July 26, 2020 @07:14PM (#23960881)

And height as well. It is hard to remember mostly 1.x metre high (rarely 2m). But in feet you can have change in the first unit. After all feet is about foot. More natural.

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Re:U.S. eyes building nuclear power plants on the moon, Mars by iso1210 on Wednesday July 29, 2020 @10:44AM (#23987201)

Vast majority of people are between 5 foot and 6 foot, so I'm not sure what your point is.

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