• ricecake@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    6 days ago

    Ugh, I’m one of those people who will defend imperial as not being irrational, just built ad-hoc for purposes that aren’t in alignment with modern ones and … No, that’s not what Fahrenheit is.

    Fahrenheit was trying to make a temperature scale that was easy to recreate to ease the calibration of thermometers. Zero is a temperature that can be created in your garage with some ice, salt and water. 100 was his best, ultimately inaccurate, attempt to measure human body temperature, since it’s another easy calibration point, and from there water was defined as 32 and 212 so that they were 180 degrees apart, which would fit will on a temperature dial.
    Not irrational, not a comfort scale, and not in alignment with current needs.

    It’s pure coincidence that it kinda lines up with comfortable outdoor temperatures in the opinion of a good chunk of a population living in the northern part of the western hemisphere.

    • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      12 hours ago

      i’ve never understood how people imagine an easier scale to calibrate than celsius, what is easier than freezing and boiling water??

      Human body temperature isn’t an easy calibration point, are you gonna shove it up your ass to calibrate it, or what?

      • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        9 hours ago

        Well, first off he wasn’t actually doing it after Celsius existed as a temperature scale. He made it a solid 18 years beforehand.
        Second, there are some issues. Specifically, ice freezes at 0, but it doesn’t stop getting colder. So if you have a bit of ice, that doesn’t tell you the temperature, just that it’s below a threshold. Boiling is more convenient because liquid water can’t get above 100, but you do have to consider side pressure.
        Fahrenheit used brine because as it freezes it forces salt out of the ice, making it more resistant to freezing. It self stabilizes its temperature, which is immensely handy.

        None of the people designing their scales envisioned that using the basic reference points for common calibration would be a thing. Just like how we don’t calibrate them with brine, ice, steam or butts today, instead relying on how we marked down how electrical resistance changes as a function of temperature and then calibrated reference numbers to get the scale right.

        It’s important to remember that the people in the past were largely not stupid, they simply hadn’t found out something we take for granted or they had priorities that we don’t.

    • OldChicoAle@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      5 days ago

      Yeah we know it’s a coincidence. That’s kinda a part of the joke. No need to flex your knowledge here Mr smarty pants

  • KaChilde@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    22
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    6 days ago

    100% hot by what understanding? If I set my oven to 100F, the peak of heat by this memes reckoning, that roast chicken is going to kill my family.

    If I run a warm bath at 50F, the medium-est of heats, My testicles are going to implode faster than a billionaire in a homemade submarine when they touch the water.

    If we are talking human comfort, then 50F is also way too cold to be considered “50% hot”.

      • jj4211@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        5 days ago

        I suppose the takeaway is once the weather is 100 or higher, I don’t care it’s just too damn hot.

        After being in 115 degree heat, 100 degree heat still feels just terrible.

        Similarly below zero, subjectively I didn’t need specifics anymore. I know that salting ice outside is probably not going to work anymore. Yes it does make a difference, but comfort wise I just hate it either way.

        So I can see, mostly joking but a grain of truth that you have “stupidly cold” then 0 to 100 scale of usual air temperature then “too damn hot”.

        It’s like the only way the farenheight scale is kind of appealing from a “humans like 0 to 100 scale”, but it’s mathematically painful and nonsense apart from comfortable human temperatures.

        • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          5 days ago

          I’m one of those people who knows we should standardize, bit also finds Fahrenheit just very convenient.

          Like, when people say it’s 50 out, I immediately know that it’s going to feel about halfway between what I know 0 and 100 feel like. No one can even put up the pretext of doing that with Celsius, because not even the most pedantic person ever bothers to tell you when it’s 100 c out.

          In seriousness though, the Fahrenheit scale isn’t non-sense, it’s just addressing things we don’t much need help with anymore. The zero point was chosen as a temperature you can create reliably without particularly sophisticated tools, and the range is so freezing and boiling are 180 degrees apart, putting them on the opposite sides of a dial.

    • Random Dent@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      6 days ago

      I worked retail for a decade. There is no bottom to the barrel. There are people driving around in cars who genuinely shouldn’t be left unsupervised with metal utensils.

  • pH3ra@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    73
    arrow-down
    8
    ·
    7 days ago

    Americans using the word propaganda for “something I don’t understand because my school system failed me so now I overcompensate by making up factoids that make me look even more uneducated by the rest of the world”

    • PugJesus@piefed.socialOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      7 days ago

      Americans using the word propaganda for “something I don’t understand because my school system failed me so now I overcompensate by making up factoids that make me look even more uneducated by the rest of the world”

      Whoosh.

      • Fmstrat@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        6 days ago

        I’m geniunly curious why you are getting down voted. The “propaganda” word choice is clearly part of the joke.

        I mean, I wish we used C instead of F, but this take is still a whoosh.

        • person420@lemmynsfw.com
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          6 days ago

          I’m curious, why? I think metric makes sense in most regards but I like the granularity of F. The difference between 70F and 75F is pretty noticeable, but in C, it’s like what? 1 degree?

          • Fmstrat@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            6 days ago

            Because my partner uses C. The constant jump scares from temps is annoying 😀

            Separate from that, I use temps for what to wear, so exactness is less important to me. In truth AQI and humidity are much more important metrics to me.

            Plus:

            • Equipment temps are always in C
            • Using C is a gateway to metric use
            • Devices built for C are just… better. Example: Any washing machine for C has the temperatures listed on the settings vs the ever so useful “warm” or “colors”
            • Kettle boils when it hits 3 digits. More fun.

            So, lots of ancillary reasons I guess, vs any one direct reason.

  • chetradley@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    39
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    7 days ago

    Celsius is the perfect system to describe how hot or cold it is, assuming you’re a water molecule.

  • m0darn@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    46
    arrow-down
    8
    ·
    7 days ago

    You guys are too ignorant to see how full of shit OP is.

    50F is not 50% hot, it’s cold. If your house was 50F you’d be saying “something is wrong with my HVAC”. You’d never heat to only 50, and you’d never cool that far. It’s cellar temperature (colder than a wine cellar, warmer than a root cellar).

    70F is 50% hot. It’s a temp you’d cool to in the summer, and a temp you’d heat to in the winter.

    100F isn’t 100% hot either, most people enjoy a hottub to be a little hotter.

    Tldr: OP is wrong

    • LordPassionFruit@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      5 days ago

      50°F is when I might start wearing pants instead if shorts. I will still be wearing a t-shirt, and won’t bring a jacket until at least 40°F.

      70°F is the hottest it can be outside before I become uncomfortably warm.

      When I get in a hot tub that is at 100°F, I will turn it down to at least 95°F and know that I won’t be able to stay much longer.

      This is the other problem with Fahrenheit, there is no universal “100% hot”. While Celsius doesn’t have the granularity and is subject to “just ask water how it feels” criticism, at least “what temperature is water” is a consistent way to explain it as opposed to saying “at 100°, you’ll be hot”

      • wavebeam@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        6 days ago

        32 percent hot is water freezing tho? Idk… 1/3 hot seems like not the right amount for water freezing.

    • Dogyote@slrpnk.net
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      6 days ago

      You clown, hot has been defined as 100°F since 1724. Therefore 50°F = 50% hot.

        • offspec@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          6 days ago

          Yeah but I can’t be -10% naked, at 0°f I’m 0% naked, I have on all the layers that I could possibly layer. At 100°F I want to be 100% naked, minimal clothing socially required because it’s hot outside. My outfit might change from 90 to 100, but after 100 I’m capped out on what I can remove before I need to either move to a place that allows public nudity or just resolve myself to public indecency charges. At 32°F I can still run out to the mailbox in shorts and a hoodie, that’s not 0% naked that’s frankly still a long ways away from fully clothed.

  • lefixxx@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    33
    ·
    7 days ago

    i tell them i use a 100 hour clock. Day starts at 0 at ends at 100. They see how much better it is and they have an existential crisis. And then everyone clapped

    • balsoft@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      6 days ago

      Honestly it’s not the worst idea, the french have tried something like that during one of their revolutions.

      Semi-relatedly, I’m salty they didn’t push for duodecimal numbers and base metric on that, it would incorporate the only good part of imperial system & 12-based time system, not only into measurements but also all other aspects of life.

      Then they could make time more consistent too, maybe have like 10000 (20736 in decimal) “metric seconds” in a day (which would mean 1 “metric second” ≈ 4 “normal” seconds) and derive stuff from there (e.g. 100 “metric seconds” in a “metric minute”, 10 “metric minutes” in a “metric hour”, 10 “metric hours” in a “metric day”). Would be really quite neat.

  • mechoman444@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    15
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    7 days ago

    Just in case because this is the internet at the end of the day. Fahrenheit is not linked to a percentage of anything. It’s mostly arbitrary in terms of assigning a number scale to temperature and it’s linked to brine solutions and human body temperature.