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[-] ExtremeDullard@piefed.social 85 points 1 month ago

Americans have compatibility issues with the rest of the world, and it's not getting any better - in more ways than this one.

[-] Psionicsickness@reddthat.com 30 points 1 month ago

Whatever. Metric is better in pretty much every other way, but Fahrenheit is demonstrably better for describing temperature as experienced by a human.

[-] JusticeForPorygon 55 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I don't understand how this is the case. I feel like it would only be perceived as being true by growing up with the system. Like i guess I don't know where you grew up so I shouldn't really make this assertion but I feel like most people from countries that use Celsius have probably never thought "hey I think it's weird that 30 degrees is considered really hot."

I guess you could make the same argument that people living in the United States don't complain about water boiling at 212 degrees but that also doesn't address the compatibility issue

[-] kahjtheundedicated@lemmy.world 22 points 1 month ago

It’s pretty much just 0 is really cold and 100 is really hot as far as weather goes. Besides that it feels pretty arbitrary. I’m a metric stan, but I do still think Fahrenheit is pretty good for talking about the weather.

[-] Saapas@piefed.zip 26 points 1 month ago

That's pretty damn subjective lol. At least the zero point (something important to people living in countries where it falls down to that) gives off useful info.

[-] LurkingLuddite@piefed.social 10 points 1 month ago

All numbers are arbitrary until you relate them to reality. This whole debate is fucking stupid vibe checks on how people feel about meaningless numbers, because the temperature is the temperature whether it's -40 or 233, or 420.

[-] Saapas@piefed.zip 19 points 1 month ago

I mean the zero point of Celsius isn't a vibe in the same way as "pretty cold, pretty hot" or however people describe Fahrenheit. It actually means something to real life that it gets to zero or goes negative. 100C is for most people much less useful tbf.

But mainly it's about what you're used ofc. I just hate the nonsense thing about Fahrenheit being better that is about vibes alone

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[-] ElectricTrombone@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I won't argue which is better. But the human body thing has truth to it. He literally designed the scale around common temperatures. 100 was supposed to be human body temperature (he ended up being a little off, but close). And the 0 on the scale was found by just adding ice to salt until it stopped getting colder IIRC.

[-] Rothe@piefed.social 14 points 1 month ago

He literally designed the scale around common temperatures.

Common temperatures in some places. And also just because it is scaled this way doesn't mean it is better. It serves the exact same purpose as any other way to measure temperature.

[-] MrKoyun@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

Also having a nice scale from 0 to 100 as "really fucking cold" and "really fucking hot" is arguably easier to understand.

[-] Nythos@sh.itjust.works 20 points 1 month ago

Only if you grew up with it.

0°c being the freezing temp of water makes a lot more sense to me than 32°F and so I can easily work around the scale of temperature using Celsius easier than I ever could Fahrenheit

[-] MrKoyun@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

Well... I didnt grow up with Fahrenheit and don't use it but it makes sense to me 🤷‍♂️

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[-] TheRealKuni@piefed.social 38 points 1 month ago

Fahrenheit is demonstrably better for describing temperature as experienced by a human.

I used to say this exact thing. I decided to be scientific about it and test it by learning Celsius and trying it for a few months.

I have not gone back. It has been seven years. All my devices are still reporting Celsius to me.

I was enjoying the process just because of the novelty of learning a new temperature scale, but when I experienced my first winter with Celsius I knew I’d never go back.

0 being freezing is so much more useful than you’d think. 23°F doesn’t really mean anything to me, but -5°C means “as far below freezing as 5°C is above freezing.” It inherently provides context without having to do math.

Also, the degrees being “larger” makes them more meaningful and thus easier to learn.

If you want to try what I did, here are some useful steps. First, this rhyme: “30 is hot, 20 is nice, 10 is chilly, 0 is ice.”

More importantly, here’s the heuristic I came up with: memorize the 10s. So 10°C = 50°F, 20°C = 68°F, 30°C = 86°F (easy to remember 68 and 86 because they’re reversed). Then memorize the 5s. You can always find them because they’re 9°F off from the 10s. 25°C = 77°F for example.

Once you have those points memorized, you can go up and down from them using 2°F per 1°C. It’s really 1.8, but since at most you’ll be 2°C away from a certain value, the most you’ll ever be off is 0.4°F. So if the weather app tells you it’s 22°C, you start at 68°F and add 4 to get to 72°F (it is actually 71.6 but who cares?). If it says 23°C, you start at 77°F and subtract 4 to get 73°F (actually 73.4, but again who cares?).

I used this heuristic until I didn’t really need it anymore. I still use it if someone asks me the temperature, because I live in the US and no one knows Celsius. So I quickly convert and give them their Fahrenheit value. But at this point I don’t really need to do so personally.

And like I said, I much prefer Celsius even for describing weather. It has really taught me how arbitrary both scales are. A co-worker of mine said, “Yeah but 100° sounds hot.” I replied, “The first time a colleague in India told me it was 40° outside, that sounded hot.” I didn’t need to convert it (didn’t bother memorizing that value because I never see it where I live), it just sounded hot because I knew the scale. (It’s 104°F for the record.)

But as I touched on, I was shocked by how much the freezing point being zero mattered. It makes sub-freezing temperature values so useful. I hadn’t expected that, growing up I knew 32°F was freezing and was so used to that nonsense that I didn’t realize what I was missing until I experienced it.

[-] Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it 15 points 1 month ago

I never used F, but as a discalculic person, i am glad i don't have because it's harder to memorize, while C is just "Uuh 0 is ice, 100 is boiling water" and i don't need to remember anything crazy or do any math

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[-] Hegar@fedia.io 35 points 1 month ago

Fahrenheit is demonstrably better for describing temperature as experienced by a human.

It's just not though. F uses a wider range of numbers to describe common outside air temperature, but more numbers =/= better.

I've lived in both F and C countries and farenheit is not easier, more intuitive, more sensible or better in any way. A number is a number. The extra precision of F is not super useful - no one can really feel a 1F difference. The freezing point of water does make a huge difference, so knowing above/below zero C is useful, but above/below 32F is no harder.

This argument that F is somehow more suitable for human temperatures is something you see online, but as someone comfortable with both i can say there is functionally no difference, except that metric is compatible with the rest of the world.

[-] doctordevice@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 month ago

I strongly disagree on one key point:

no one can really feel a 1F difference

Yes I can. Changing my thermostat by a single degree can be very impactful on my comfort. And on the "too warm side" each additional degree is noticeably less comfortable.

Days with highs of 68F, 69F, and 70F and comparable humidity all feel different to me. Sure, there are more factors at play but holding the rest equal, 1F differences are noticeable.

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[-] inari@piefed.zip 24 points 1 month ago

It's just arbitrary numbers. It only seems better to you because you grew up with it.

[-] Rothe@piefed.social 17 points 1 month ago

It is demonstrably not. You are more familiar with it, and you loathe decimals, so you are of the personal opinion that it is. But that is all it is, your personal opinion about it.

[-] ExtremeDullard@piefed.social 16 points 1 month ago

Which units are best doesn't matter: the point is, nobody else uses standard units anymore, apart from a couple oddball countries, and only one of them - North Korea - isn't trying to extricate itself from it.

Everybody else tries to be a part of the world's technical and scientific communities by speaking the same language, but of course America has to be different. Because of course it does... And it's tiring if you ask me.

[-] Zorque@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

America does speaks metric, especially the technical and scientific communities. They just also speak standard.

Don't other countries get on Americans for not speaking more than one language? Why is that now a detriment?

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[-] Psionicsickness@reddthat.com 6 points 1 month ago

And I agree with you, fully, except for temperature. “If everyone was jumping off a bridge”, right?

The scale is stupid and I don’t give a fuck if it’s the “norm”. The norm is dumb.

[-] ExtremeDullard@piefed.social 7 points 1 month ago

Norms may be dumb but they make everybody's lives easier when everybody follows them.

As for temperature specifically, there's nothing inherently better in Celsius or Fahrenheit. It's just a choice. The only unit that is superior to all of them is the Kelvin because it has a true zero, but it's not commonly used in everyday settings.

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[-] D_C@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

"demonstrably better"
Well go on then, I would like you to demonstrate to me how it is better.

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[-] Instigate@aussie.zone 13 points 1 month ago

It’s interesting to me that the only people who advocate for Fahrenheit over Celsius in any circumstances are those who grew up using it, whereas those who prefer Celsius over Fahrenheit are from both places where Celsius and Fahrenheit are used. I’m yet to see an example of someone saying “I grew up with Celsius but Fahrenheit is so much better because…”

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[-] jerkface@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 month ago

demonstrably

so do it

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[-] psx_crab@lemmy.zip 50 points 1 month ago

Maybe they live on a hill and what they really mean is

[-] LurkingLuddite@piefed.social 13 points 1 month ago

Don't you mean 1/6*π radians?!

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[-] Folstar@lemmus.org 42 points 1 month ago

Maybe this is from growing up in a place with seasons, but 30C to 30F is a comfortable temperature range and I would be quite pleased to live in a place where those are the extremes.

[-] TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 1 month ago

When I was young it was between -5 and +25C max. Now it's -10 and 42C max. And yet still there are people who say climate change isn't real.

Oh and it's humid AF, 42C feels like 48C. I prefer 35 dry heat over 25 humid.

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[-] rockSlayer 36 points 1 month ago

As a Minnesotan, 30°F is still shorts weather

[-] nickhammes@lemmy.world 22 points 1 month ago

Minnesotans at 30°F are a great example of direction mattering, and not just temperature; hit 30 on the way down and you'll see them change out of shorts, but hit 30 on the way up and you'll see them change into shorts

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[-] mr_eckneim@feddit.org 28 points 1 month ago

You fuckers argued to much No more relative temperatures for you, we‘re all using kelvin now

[-] Chronographs@lemmy.zip 9 points 1 month ago

I’m using rankine it’s more precise

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[-] CaptPretentious@lemmy.world 21 points 4 weeks ago
[-] Oni_eyes@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 month ago

30 C isn't that hot.... hell, half of the country is regularly above that for over half the year.

[-] lonefighter@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 month ago

And 30 F isn't really that cold. Throw a hoodie on or maybe a light jacket.

I wish it were 30 F right now. I'm ready for summer to be over.

[-] MrEff@lemmy.world 15 points 4 weeks ago

Today is 42.2 C for me today. Then you factor humidity on top of that and it becomes like the gates of hell. Then I remember that I live in dallas and I basically already am in hell.

The European mind can not comprehend...

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[-] BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world 14 points 4 weeks ago

30 degrees Fahrenheit? Hell yeah. It's practically tropical. If it's sunny as well, I'll be rolling my windows down.

(Not me in pic, but I've been him)

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[-] Signtist@bookwyr.me 13 points 1 month ago

That's why I'm glad I live where I'm more likely to complain about it being -40.

[-] farmgineer@nord.pub 12 points 1 month ago

Eh, it's all the same to me

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[-] MrRandom@lemmy.zip 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

why they are still not using metric?

[-] HCSOThrowaway@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago

We've been in the process of switching to the metric system since 1976, and officially (semi-)adopted it in 1991.

Unofficially, people are stubborn and anti-Europe.

If it makes you feel better, some cooks, all scientists and and all people involved in the drug trade are fluent in metric.

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[-] billwashere@lemmy.world 10 points 4 weeks ago

I’m slowly trying to convert myself to metric. Temperature is a hard one for me because it’s so ingrained in my psyche.

Length is easier. 440mm is much easier than 17 21/64 in. Plus all the CAD software I use is easy to switch to metric. Weight isn’t hard either since most of the maker things I use (filament/resin) are in metric. My doctor’s office even weighs me in kg thinking they can sneak it by me. I know what 92.4kg is you cheeky bastards.

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this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2026
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