Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size

Re:Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size by CorrectHorseBat on Monday September 05, 2022 @05:54AM (#32722415)

In Celcius, 0 water freezes, 100 water boils. Very convenient for weather and cooking. For the rest, what is hot weather or cold weather is very subjective, so I don't really see any use to define a scale on the base of that.

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Re:Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size by bmitc on Monday September 05, 2022 @06:10AM (#32722534)

Do people actually directly measure boiling water? I've never seen that. It's a self-apparent phenomenon. I've never heard of anyone measuring anything while cooking where it matters which temperature scale they're using.

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Re:Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size by mongol on Monday September 05, 2022 @06:28AM (#32722683)

It is really useful for calibration. Stick a thermometer in there and you can tell how accurate it is.

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Re:Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size by WastingMyTime89 on Monday September 05, 2022 @12:01PM (#32725817)

Unless you live at altitude 0, I wouldn’t do that if I were you.

Celsius and Fahrenheit don’t make much difference. That’s the only part of the imperial system which is not incredibly inferior to metric.

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Re:Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size by bmitc on Monday September 05, 2022 @06:32AM (#32722716)

Calibration of what? The thermometer? When do you need to calibrate a thermometer at the temperature of boiling water and how does the temperature scale affect that in any way?

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Re:Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size by Ekaros on Monday September 05, 2022 @06:44AM (#32722803)

The fact that calibration points at sea level of celsius are very easy to produce. Just need some ice and then some boiling water. And I can't even get my hands on pure ammonium chloride. Just some mixed stuff.

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Re:Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size by mongol on Monday September 05, 2022 @06:59AM (#32722931)

Yes, calibration of the thermometer. For example with sous vide cooking, it can be useful to know how accurate your equipment is since recipes are often expressed in precise temperatures.

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Re:Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size by bmitc on Monday September 05, 2022 @07:18AM (#32723066)

Thanks for the example, but I'm still not sure what that has to do with the scale since you only care about a single number in that case.

I need to look up sous vide cooking. I've never heard of it before. Seems pretty interesting.

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Re:Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size by cauefcr on Monday September 05, 2022 @12:50PM (#32726370)

You need at least two points to determine the slope of the thermometer, 0 and 100 as freezing and boiling point of water makes that reproducible.

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Re:Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size by xxs on Monday September 05, 2022 @07:38AM (#32723189)

well the boiling point depends on the elevation (pressure), so that tells you nothing at all.

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Re:Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size by jenscow on Monday September 05, 2022 @06:40AM (#32722763)

The metric system is based mostly on water. 1 kg = 1 litre = 1000 cm3

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Re:Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size by glandium on Monday September 05, 2022 @06:41AM (#32722775)

For people serious about their tea, measuring 70, 80 or 90 Celsius is vital.

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