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this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2024
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It is really easy to map onto human feel though. 0-100 pretty accurately maps onto our minimum and maximum realistically survivable temps, long-term, and the middle temperatures of those are the most comfortable. It's far more round, when it comes to describing human preference and survivability, than Celsius is.
I bet a lot more people know what 0°C feels like than 0°F. One is freezing point, one is a completely arbitrary temperature which only gets called "the lowest you'll experience" as a post hoc rationalisation of Fahrenheit. Most people will never experience anything that cold, some people experience colder.
I even bet more people know what 100°C feels like than 100°F. One is accidentally getting scalded by boiling water, the other is a completely arbitrary temperature which is quite hot but not even the hottest you'll experience in America.
boiling water isnt necessarily 100c. if youre boiling water, it can be any arbitrary temperature above 100.
thats like going to a geyser pit and saying thats 100c, when it isnt. when you cook and let water come to a boil, the chef doesnt care that its exactly 100c, only that its in the state above 100.
If anything it'll be below 100 due to altitude. For example salt water for making pasta boils still at approx 100 deg. C. It takes quite a lot of salt (way more than you would ever want to consume) to meaningfully raise the boiling point.
That's not how boiling works. The water heats up to its boiling point where it stops and boils. While boiling the temperature does not increase, it stays exactly at the boiling point. This is called "Latent Heat", at its boiling point water will absorb heat without increasing in temperature until it has absorbed enough for its phase to change.
There is an exception to this called superheating
What? People experience 100 f regularly. It's literally their body temperature.
100F is a fever; if you're experiencing those regularly you should go see a doctor.
I wanna say that with this logic 50 should be right around the most comfortable temp.. But for most people it's closer to 70.
I'll try to explain how easily mappable Celsius is to people as well.
-40 to +40.. -40 being extremely cold, and +40 being extremely hot. 21c is the equivalent of 70f.
It's all the same stuff. Just matters what you're used to.
0-150 is the better range, and 75 is right in the middle. 100 is just a hot air temperature most people don't want to be in but it's not an extreme.
Saunas can get up to 200 degrees
Hot tubs are usually at 100
Freezers need to be at least 0
You say 15°C. 6° cooler than room temperature. But how much is 6°?
It's 60°F.
50°F or 10°C is where you need clothes to survive
300, 325, 350 is where you bake cookies (149-176°C)
Fahrenheit has a bunch of 5 and 10s
Saying something like high 70s or low 70s for temp represents an easy way to tell temperature.
21° to 26° for celcius
I walk outside and say "It feels like high 70s today" someone using celcius would say, "Feels like 25°". If it was a little warmer than "low 80s" compared to "Ehh about 26 or 27°C"
Why is it okay to say high 70s/low 80s and not high 20s? No one goes outside and says, "Ehh, it feels like 26.6 oC today.", we just know it is a bit warmer than 25.
Yeah, I get your point. I think I'm just trying to explain that it all just matters where you grew up and what you used. I go outside today and I do say it feels like a 12 degree day. It's not that much different.
I must admit, the oven temps are nice, but they are a product of being written in Fahrenheit (if they were written in celcius, it would be round too, like 150c, 160c, 170c, 175c, etc)
But the more I look at it the more I see it's all just numbers. We put importance to these numbers but they're all pretty arbitrary, except celcius using 0 as the freezing point for water and 100 as the boiling point- these are two very important measures that are just weird for Fahrenheit.
When do you use 0° and 100°C?
This is also at standard pressure and most do not live at sea level.
I don't put a thermometer in my water to make sure it is boiling or one in my water to make sure it freezes.
It can snow and roads can ice before it hits 0°C
It has no real world applications
I thought we left pedants with reddit.
Take care.
Depends on where you live. Someone in Siberia would probably disagree, as the temperature there can reach -40
No it doesn't, unfortunately.
What makes 0F (-18C) special? How do you estimate survivability at such temperature? If I'd be out on the street naked, I would die there in a matter of minutes. At the same time, there is plenty of places where winter temperatures go -40F (-40C) and even below, yet people very much survive and live there.
Similar with 100F (38C). There are places with higher temps in the summer, up to 120F (49C) in some places, yet people survive. Still, if you're not equipped with anything, 100F (38C) will burn you alive.
All that not to mention that 50F (10C) is actually cold, not comfortable.
Fahrenheit is only intuitive and "feeling-descriptive" because you're used to it. From a person born in Celsius country, it's really not less intuitive. I know I can be comfortable in my birthday suit at around 25C. Less than 20 is chilly, less than 10 - cold, less than 0 - freezing. More than 30 is hot, more than 40 is deadly.
0F is the temperature a freezer needs to be to keep food fresh.
50F is the point that you can't survive without clothes, your body will not generate enough heat.
100F (38C) will not burn you alive. You can survive for a long time in a sauna at 200F.
100F is perfect hot tub temperature
Freezer normally operates at -4F
You can't survive without clothes at 55-60F, either.
100F will not burn you in an instant, but the comment went into long-term survival, and good luck surviving at that.
Not sure where you got -4F from.
USDA, United States Department of Agriculture, recommends 0°F or -17.8°C
100°F in the shade isn't extreme, and you'd be able to survive normally (With more water, everyone can use more water)
100°F is hot tub water
120°F is recommended hot tap water
140°F water will pretty much burn you instantly
Guess what, Canada sets the freezer at -15 Celsius. The USDA just chose 0F because it's good enough and a nice easy to remember number, there is nothing special about it.
Same with all your other numbers, your just using whatever the closest even F value is that's easy to remember there's nothing special about any of them and we have equivalents in Celsius
According to Canada.ca
Every 2 F is basically 1 C. You have more whole numbers with F.
Like -15°C is 5°F
6°F is -14.4444°C
-14°C is 6.8°F
So 5, 6, and 7°F are about equal to -15, -14.5, and -14°C.
And it's not just a random number. You know how much more energy would be used if everyone kept their freezer just a couple degrees colder? It's the optimum recommended temperature.
No it's random and arbitrary. Those couple degrees improve shelf life and allow for better extermination of many organisms, and higher temperature gradient allows the water to freeze faster, which is reflected in the quality of the product after thawing as it is less affected by wrongly formed and expanded ice. There is no "golden temperature", and so everyone flips it how they like it, and instead of what's actually right this is often dictated by convenience.
There are strong benefits to keeping your freezer at -80°C (-112°F), even, but at this point it crosses the line of practicality by both freezer cost and electricity consumption.
Also, the whole numbers argument is extemely weird. Like, do you know the difference between 71 and 72°F? Is it pronounced in any way? I can assure you, I cannot tell the difference between 21°C and 22°C. And where it actually matters (precise measurements etc.) you'll need decimals for both (and there's nothing wrong with them!)
The 120 and 140 don't make that much sense unfortunately.
90-110 is hand washing temp. 100 average.
110 is hot
120 recommend max
130 very hot
140 very very hot
150 burns
If I said to you. Would you stick your hand in 50°C water for 100 dollars would you do it?
What about 60°C?
65°C?
I bet you don't know what would happen if you stuck your hand in 65°C water without looking it up. There's a huge jump from 60° to 65°C. 70°C will instantly scald you.
Someone out there is stupid enough to think. Water boils at 100°C, 65 should be perfectly fine. Even though water doesn't boil until 212°, most people would be cautious of sticking their hand in 100°F+ water.
Yes if you think 40°C+ is hot then you can gather that 65°C would be hotter. But why compare to 40° when you can do 100°.
Why compare it to 40°? Because I know what 40° feels like because I've been living in a civilized country with a civilized measurement system all my life. I can tell you that 65° is too hot, because I make my tea with 70° to 80° hot water. Therefore just before that will probably be too hot for my skin.
In the end, there is no objectively better system when it comes to day to day temperatures. But there is one when it comes to science, reliability and universality and that is Celsius.
All international science uses metric and slowly but surely the resistance amongst US universities melts away and they switch to metric as well. Give it another one or two generations and we'll finally be rid of the outdated and arbitrary imperial system!
USA uses US Customary units, not Imperial units.
Fahrenheit is grouped with US Customary units but is not one.
I agree metric system is superior and there isn't a reason to use Inches, Feet, Yards, etc.
But Fahrenheit is a great system for weather and works great for everything else.
For science if I have to heat a beaker to 280° it doesn't matter if it's C or F. I'm not going to be able to relate to 280° in either system. The instrument is going to have to tell me the exact measurement.
Same with like a tape measure. I can measure out 3 meters. I don't need to know how long 3 meters is to do that.
However, mark two lines on a piece of paper and I will get closer guessing in inches than cm because I know the US customary units better.
Eventually US will change to metric. But I doubt we will ever not use Fahrenheit for normal day things like weather
I can absolutely tell 65°C is too hot, that's 5°C short of what is piped as literal hot water in the taps in my area.
I would not recommend going above 40°C for washing, and there is literally zero issue remembering that. Body temperature of a healthy human is 36,6-36,7°C (97,9-98,1°F), everything above that is hot.
As such, there is literally zero issue figuring 40°C is reasonably hot and 65°C is unreasonably hot, it doesn't take a genius.
Speaking of water, Celsius is obviously superior as a water-based system. I can easily tell temperature in my kettle goes to 100°C (212°F, huh?), or steps down to 90°C (194°F??) or 80°C (176°F??) to brew a perfect cup of tea. When temperature outside goes 0°C (32°F??), I know I can expect ice and snow. And for everything in between, I can make a pretty accurate approximation.
And finally, modern Fahrenheit scale is literally defined through Celsius. It's a scale that is defined as 32°F at the freezing point of water (i.e. 0°C) and 212°F at water boiling point (i.e. 100°C). You're literally using Celsius but make it harder for no reason.
Appreciate you. All I wanted was to have an interesting discussion. People in here acting like I shot the Pope.
Good luck surviving in 0°F long term.
Russians do it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯