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Comment by bargainbin

1 day ago

Because in Celsius, 0 lets you know the water outside will likely be frozen and 100 lets you know the water in your pot is likely boiling. This is utterly useless information.

It is nowhere near as useful day to day as knowing 0°F means a very specific saltwater brine mixture will likely be frozen, and 90°F is kind of as hot as your insides. Or 96. Or 98.6 as the third revision decided.

Also the 0 and 100 is at sea level.

If you actually measure a boiling pot (assuming you aren't at the beach), it will likely not be exactly 100 degrees, but less (or more, haven't had my coffee so I can't calculate).

So for most day to day stuff, it's equally arbitrary. And pretty much _nobody_ needs a thermometer to tell if something's boiling, you wait for a rolling boil. Or frozen, you wait until it looks like ice.

So again, great on paper, but in day to day use, not necessarily more useful than F.

I find F way more intuitive for weather. The larger scale helps. 100 is hot. 0 is quite cold. Boiling point is irrelevant. 32 freezing is the only thing that feels arbitrary.

  • Yeah and freezing point is whatever because that moves anyway and also doesn't say a lot about whether or not there will be snow

  • in celsius:

    50 hurts to the touch, your chip has likely broken and given off its black smoke 30 is good for swimming in cold water >25 is worth worrying about sun stroke. make sure to drink a lot of water 24-26 is a nice summer day 18-22 is comfortable room temperature >15 is good enough shorts weather 0-10 needs at least a light jacket <0 you have to be attentive about frost bite, but not worried -5 either wants gloves or good pockets -15 wants a sweater and jacket < -15 you should probably plug in your car -10 - -25 is good downhill skiing weather -20 - -27 is right cold, full winter gear: toque, scarf, mittens, thick socks, the whole kit and kaboodle, but still chic -30 - -40: ski version of the full winter gear, including snow pants, double socks, and good boots. both your warmest sweater and ski jacket

    ----

    its really just what you grew up with that will make sense.

    like, wtf is 72 and 54 and mid 80s? i have no backing reference to put them into scale, even after living in the states for a decade. 500, 275, 425, 150 do make sense in F for me because thats what ovens list

    • >like, wtf is 72 and 54 and mid 80s

      Exactly what their relation to 0 and 100 would imply. Middle, ~75 percentile, 80+ percentile.