You are viewing a single thread.
View all comments View context
2 points

So you’re saying that 0 and 100 aren’t intuitively obvious? I find that really strange when it’s doing a better job keeping to base 10 than the metric system in this particular use case.

permalink
report
parent
reply
12 points
*

the numbers may be, but if you asked me to tell you what they feel like i would have to convert them to celsius first. where i live temperatures are generally between -30 and +30, and i could tell you in an instant what I would wear for a given temperature in that range. 50F though? no clue. since it’s right between 0 and 100 i guess it would be just right, temperature wise, so t-shirt and long pants?

permalink
report
parent
reply
5 points

Can you remember that at temperatures near 0F and 100F, you need to take special precautions when going outside? The rest is a matter of getting used to what the numbers mean, but those are very intuitive danger points.

permalink
report
parent
reply
9 points
*

-18 is such an arbitrary place for “special precautions”. at 0, I know to start driving more carefully since the roads ice up. at -15, i know to wear long johns. at +15, i know to start using a thinner jacket. at -30, i know to use a thick hat and wax on my cheeks to prevent the blood vessels from rupturing. at +30, I know to use a large hat and sun cream on my cheeks to prevent them from burning.

permalink
report
parent
reply
-2 points

yeah no shit, but think of it this way, if you were put into a place that was 100f, you would go “damn this bitch hot out here” and if you were put into a place that was 0f you would go “damn this joint cold as fuck fr”

Stop thinking in celsius.

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points

why would i stop? there’s only one place in the world that uses another scale, and it’s dangerous for me to even travel there.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

What if it was 99f? Or 1f? Would your scientific “damn this bitch hot out here” change to something else?

permalink
report
parent
reply
11 points

When it comes to a single number on a scale, whatever you grew up with will be more “obvious”. 100F doesn’t give me any more information than 38C does. The whole “base 10” thing only matters if you are actually doing some math to that number.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points
*

Base 10 makes it much easier to remember.

When was the last time you did math related to temperature?

permalink
report
parent
reply
7 points

For day to day use, it’s just a single number, no one is doing any conversions, etc, with the number. That was my point. There’s nothing to remember. Do you forget what 72F feels like? Do you have to scale it in your head?

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

base 10 is literally just 0-9 so yeah, everyone remembers that.

scaling based on the base 10 figure makes conversions easier, so there’s that.

permalink
report
parent
reply
0 points

Kelvin is used for math pretty regularly. Rankine was too.

permalink
report
parent
reply
-6 points

100F definitely gives more insight as to the temperature. It’s a 100/100. That’s as hot as a person can really tolerate. If you understand percentages or how to rate things on a scale of 1-10, you understand fahrenheit.

permalink
report
parent
reply
6 points

That’s as hot as a person can really tolerate.

There’s large chunks of the world proving that false every day. For the geographically impared, the simple fact that Phoenix has existed for longer than air conditioning, proves that statement false.

And 0F as the low point is equally as useless.

permalink
report
parent
reply
9 points

For Celsius, 0 is freezing cold and 100 is boiling hot - that’s intuitive too.

I have literally never felt 0°F in my life and couldn’t tell you how cold it is, just that it’s very cold. I believe everyone has a rough understanding how 0°C and 100°C feel though.

permalink
report
parent
reply
0 points

It is intuitive, and that’s fine. Having the same intuition around human comfort zones is also fine. One measurement system can’t really cover everything.

People tend not to want to live in places where it’s routinely under 0F or over 100F. You’ll tolerate it, but you won’t like it. It’s a very natural range of human comfort.

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points
*

No, they’re not. I couldn’t tell what those numbers mean even if you asked, but I can tell what 0°C outside feels, and what 100°C sauna feels. I can also tell that 21°C is a nice ambient temperature for chilling, and 15-20°C is ideal for most outdoor sports.

Yeah sure those are not necessarily nice round numbers, but I’ve used the scale all my life so it’s intuitive to me, same as the Fahrentrash is intuitive to you

permalink
report
parent
reply
-5 points

No, that’s not how this works.

You understand the concept of a scale. If I asked you to rate something on a scale of 1-10, you know what i mean. It has nothing to do with intuitiveness. If I asked you to rate something on a scale of 7-23, you’d know what I mean, even though the numbers are different than what you’re used to.

So if I said it was 100F outside, you’d know that’s very uncomfortably hot, as hot as a normal person can really tolerate, because you’d recognize it as the high end of the scale.

Everyone can understand fahrenheit, some people just try really hard not to.

permalink
report
parent
reply
6 points
*

If you’d say it is 100F outside, I wouldn’t know what you mean because I have no concept of Fahrenheit. Is 100F actually hot? What is that in Celsius? Do you mean hot as in “better to wear light clothes” or “Do not set a foot outside or you will melt”?

What does it mean “as hot as a normal person can really tolerate”? What about a abnormal person?

It gives nothing of information. Just a rough indication of what it might be. Which isn’t useful at all.

permalink
report
parent
reply
6 points

You really don’t understand what reference points are. The scale is useless without reference points, and I’m not accustomed to them while I have very clear ones for Celsius.

Sure I can understand that 100F feels very hot, but if I was outside in that temperature I couldn’t tell you an estimate in Fahrenheit how hot it feels

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

They aren’t. And fahrenheit is not a 0-100 scale. It is just the scale you picked out of it in order to make some kind of sense out of the non-intuitive system which it is.

permalink
report
parent
reply

Science Memes

!science_memes@mander.xyz

Create post

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don’t throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.


Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

Community stats

  • 12K

    Monthly active users

  • 2.8K

    Posts

  • 67K

    Comments