Comment by gpvos
3 years ago
200F = 93.3C, 190F = 87.8C. Really, we're talking about boiling, why would one even consider using Fahrenheit?
3 years ago
200F = 93.3C, 190F = 87.8C. Really, we're talking about boiling, why would one even consider using Fahrenheit?
In some places, most of your instruments will likely be in Fahrenheit and Fahrenheit is what you use daily for most tasks. It only makes sense that you use Fahrenheit as your reference point.
A home in other places is more likely to have Celcius, and you'll likely use it.
It isn't like it is difficult to convert.
No, it is very hard to convert.
The US has about 4% of the world population. Adapt. It's not worth the communication problems.
No, it is very hard to convert.
Do you think folks are doing it by hand? nope, they use the internet, the same thing we are communicating on.
I agree that the US should convert, but that's another discussion. No need to crap on folks for using something familiar when we all know that's why they do it.
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USian here, two perspectives. I wish we used the SI system, it’s clearly superior and I agree about the communication problems. It’s also really not that hard to convert temperature roughly, just a factor of two and a constant.
The US customary units have a lot advantages. For example:
In Fahrenheit, 0 is really cold while 100 is really hot. In Celsius, 0 is kind of cold while 100 is damaging to life.
With feet and inches, you can easily divide a foot by 2, 3, 4, and 6 with no repeating decimal digits. It's the same reason the ancient sumerians used base 60 for their number system.
With liquid measure, a cup is roughly what would be considered a serving with a meal while a litre is one hundred millionth the distance from the equator to the north pole, cubed
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Dude we all have robot calculators in our pockets - it’s the work of seconds to convert with zero thought on the user’s part:
“Hey Siri convert 190°F to Celsius.”
“190°F is 87.77 degrees Celsius.”
Boom. It is not very hard to convert.
The US represents half the readership on this forum. Audience-wise it's a "pick your poison" scenario in avoiding communication problems, so what's wrong with an individual copying their notes into a website not just leaving the units as written?
F to C -> subtract 32 and divide by 1.8
C to F -> multiply by 1.8 and add 32
This sounds messy but works out well for a lot of temperatures we are used to, for example... 0C is 32F ... 100C is 212F ... 20C is 68F ... 30C is 86F ... etc.
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i suppose they will when they have to.
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what's your take on languages
On the contrary Fahrenheit and Celsius is one of the harder units to convert. Can't just "halve and remove 10%" in your head like you can for pounds. Though I agree with you that you can't expect Americans to use SI units.
The scale factor is 9/5, which is close enough to 2 that the precision is fine for casual conversion (weather report, discussion of boiling tea on the web, …)
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Most folks reading this will have the internet. It makes conversion easy. If you don't, charts help get most common things converted.
Easy.
Unfortunately, a lifetime in the U.S. has left me with poor intuition for Celsius. The conversion isn't difficult to do in ones head and for laboratory work, naturally, it's just as easy to read one thermometer scale as another. For everyday life, weather reports, fever thermometer readings, thermostats and such, it is just a nuisance to convert from Fahrenheit and back. If someone tells me it's 15 degrees C outside I have to do mental arithmetic to know if I should take a sweater. Furthermore, from a purely logical perspective perhaps we should even consider using Kelvin.
It's a completely different story for distance, weight and volume. Metric measurement in these cases are more intuitive for me, and they are clearly superior too. Millimeters are so much easier to use than fractions of an inch (7/32 inch -- that's a ridiculous system). In the U.S., an ounce of flour weighs less than an ounce of gold. Who even knows how much a grain of gunpowder is in units anyone else uses (one grain is approximately 1/16 gram). There are three teaspoons in one tablespoon, but only two cups in a pint, 2 pints in a quart and 4 quarts in a gallon.
I'd be happy to switch from imperial to SI units for length, mass, and volume. I'll gladly switch slugs to kilograms and pounds to Newtons, but I will miss Fahrenheit.
> In the U.S., an ounce of flour weighs less than an ounce of gold.
Wait, what?
I mean: WHAT?!
There's a children's riddle here: "what weighs more: a pound of feathers or a pound of lead."
I hesitate to ask what the US answer to this would be.
It's the avoirdupois ounce (exactly 28.349523125 g) for everything but precious metals, where the Troy ounce is used (exactly 31.1034768 g).
Two different units, both called an ounce.
Once you know 100 is boiling, a simple rhyme helps to remember Celsius for common weather temperatures:
30 is hot.
20 is pleasing.
10 is cold.
And 0 is freezing.
As much as I prefer Celsius and have no idea what temperatures are in Fahrenheit, it seems quite obvious why people will use it - because it’s what one knows and what is used where one live.
Even as an Aussie I have to disagree with you here. The commenter at least put Fahrenheit in the degree.
People are allowed to communicate in a way that they're familiar with. If they have used F their entire life and so has everyone around them, then its fine.
The US demographic represents roughly 41% of Hacker News, I think its fine if they use their own measurement system.