this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2024
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Just because Americans grew up with and are largely stuck with the Fahrenheit system doesn’t mean they can’t science. Come on. It’s an inferior system of measurement, sure, but no one even in America uses Fahrenheit for science anyway.
(Don’t get me wrong, I wish we’d all switch to Celsius over here. I did. It’s so much better. But it took a WHILE to reach the point where it felt natural, and during that time involved a lot more math than the average human is willing to do. Converting systems of measurement that are ingrained in your culture is HARD.)
Fahrenheit is a shit system for science. It is a great system for humans. It's basically the percent of heat humans can maintain. 0% or below is too fucking cold. 100% or above is too fucking hot. 72% hot is about room temperature. Fahrenheit degrees are about the smallest change humans can detect.
I understand this argument. I used to make it myself! It is a good argument. I learned Celsius to test it.
The argument isn’t wrong, since really the best unit to use is the one that is understood. But my friend, having previously argued the merits of Fahrenheit for the weather, I have thoroughly changed my mind.
Degrees Celsius being larger means they have more significance. If you want the kind of resolution that Fahrenheit gives, you can always use half degrees. But I find I don’t actually need that granularity. Instead, a difference of a degree in Celsius matters enough to be worth paying attention to, or at least moreso than a degree Fahrenheit.
More importantly, though, switching to Celsius has finally given me a better understanding of sub-freezing temperatures.
23°F doesn’t really mean much to me, it just means “cold.” But -5°C means “as far below freezing as 5°C (41°F) is above freezing.” This makes it FAR easier to comprehend how many layers and what variety of layers I should wear. With Fahrenheit it was always a bit of guesswork for me.
I would HIGHLY recommend trying to learn Celsius just for the hell of it. I really enjoyed the process. The math is pretty easy, and even easier if you use this heuristic I came up with:
Start by memorizing the 10s in Celsius. If you forget you can find them again, 18°F for every 10°C. I started in the early summer, so the two I most needed were 20°C = 68°F and 30°C = 86°F. Easy to remember because the digits are reversed. Also learn 10°C = 50°F, etc. When finding the Fahrenheit value, which you’ll need to do for a while until you start to get the hang of the Celsius, start at the nearest 10 and add or remove 2°F per 1°C. So 16°C, start at 68°F and drop 8, leaving you at 60°F.
For more accuracy (and faster calculation) add in the 5s. So in the above example, you’d start at 15°C = 59°F, and add 2. Getting you to 61°F.
16°C is actually 60.8°F, so either of these is sufficiently accurate, but starting from 15 is MORE accurate.
It took me a while to really internalize it, but it was an interesting challenge and I feel like I truly benefitted from it. I recommend it to anyone who thinks they’re up for it and has the kind of brain that will embrace stuff like this.