Who even uses Celsius - programming.dev

Someone should set a new "shitamericanssay"
Ik it exists on reddit, but it would be nice to not make it around Americans.
yeah, actually... !stupidonsocialmedia ?
Something around people, who think that what they're used to is default everywhere

there are 2 countries in the world that use Fahrenheit I know off the top of my head.

  • USA
  • Liberia (Used to be USA colony. Slaves were sent there after they were freed after the civil war)

More than 1 country in the world is retarded

Some older people in the UK still prefer Fahrenheit, Celsius is still the official/default unit however.

A politician here recently tried to promote returning the UK to Imperial units, it has gone nowhere so far.

Are you serious? That's pretty funny!

It does seem superior for the weather and cooking.

Having the weather between 50-100 instead of 10-40 kind of makes sense.

And for the cooking, having the steak temperature at 130-135 or 135-145 is clearer than 54-57 or 57-63.

Not that I’d think it would make sense to change, but it just seems plain stupid how we like to pretend the imperial system would be inferior and stupid.

The whole world swapped to metric for a reason.
Oh yeah that's why it freezes at a random 32 degrees. I generally live between -30 C and +30 C.
Fun fact: Imperial and USC are different.
I like to refer to them as Freedom units and Communist units (in jest, obviously). I will say, though, that Fahrenheit feels like a more precise scale for measuring temperature even if the units are goofy.
I don't get the precision argument. It really doesn't matter for personal use because you wouldn't feel the difference anyways and if you really needed it to be as precise as possible (for... I don't know, science) you'd use decimals. And if you're sciencing, you'd use the system that allows easy conversion, which is metric.

I think I came across as saying something different than I intended. I wasn't arguing that Fahrenheit IS more precise. I was saying it feels more precise.

If I'm measuring a length, then metric feels more precise. I can measure 1035mm in a nice, whole, number while 40.74803 inches is a length I can't measure well with a measuring tape and I'd probably end up calling it 40.75" which, even then, still isn't a whole number. I'm just talking about the perception, not the actual useful nature.

I get what you're saying. It just doesn't make sense for me. But that's because I'm accustomed to metric.
The worst thing about imperial is that it's not very consistent within itself. E.g. imagine that you need 100 pieces of wood, which are each 2.5 inch long. How do you quickly calculate how much wood you need to buy so you can cut it up? Do you just not think in units of 10 and 100s, but something else instead?
Don't forget to factor in the width of the saw blade. That'll be fun.
I'm scared to ask now if Fahrenheit has decimals or if it's like 74 and one eighth degrees.

What additional arguments besides personal experience would you give to back this precision claim?

Temperature scales are arbitrary by nature, and the criteria behind their definition can be useful or not. Fahrenheit's isn't that much useful compared to Celsius' or Kelvin's.

I'm not arguing on Fahrenheit's behalf or saying it IS more precise. I just said it "feels" more precise because you have finer increments in whole numbers. 70 degrees F is about 21 degrees C while 90 degrees F is about 32 degrees. 20 degrees of increment in F versus 12 in C which feels more precise. It's the same way metric length measurements feel more precise because there are whole number millimeters rather than fractional inches.

I have no strong opinion any one way, other than I feel like everyone should endeavor to be comfortable converting between various systems of measurement.

You can simply use as many decimals you want to make Celsius more precise. You don't see it used in general because it really isn't needed.
The little digital thermometers I have around the house read to one decimal place. The precision argument is just bizarre.
So precise that everything is rounded to the nearest 5 or 10 degrees lol.

As someone who moved to the US later in life, I learned to use fahrenheit because there's no way to talk to anyone about the weather or cooking otherwise.

If you need to do the same one day, don't bother trying to convert in your head. Just learn the numbers conversationally. Familiarize yourself with how the weather feels with the number the weather app shows.

I can't convert at all but I can use both C and F in conversation because one rarely needs exact numbers anyway. You learn the ballparks pretty quick.

Thank you, this is a a great idea! I've found these common temperatures online, in case anyone wants to learn them:

| Description | Celsius (°C) | Fahrenheit (°F) | | ---------------------------------------- | ------------ | --------------- | | Absolute Zero | -273.15 | -459.67 | | Freezing Point of Water (at sea level) | 0 | 32 | | Average Room Temperature | 20-22 | 68-72 | | Body Temperature | 37 | 98.6 | | Average Summer Day | 25-30 | 77-86 | | Heat of a Desert | 40-50 | 104-122 | | Boiling Point of Water (at sea level) | 100 | 212 | | Highest Recorded Earth Temperature | 56.7 | 134 |

Average Summer Day 25-30 77-86

See, that's the problem with these "Fahrenheit is more intuitive" arguments. They are catered to a very specific country with a very specific climate. For me, 25-30 ĀŗC is an average late spring day.

It's intuitive to those who grew up using it. For me, Celsius is much more intuitive because people around me used it all my life and refer to common temperatures in Celsius.

So I think intuitiveness is very subjective and not a good criterion to judge a unit by.

Isn't Fahrenheit a "feel" temperature unit anyway? Once you need precision (science), even Americans switch to Celsius/Kelvin.

FWIW Fahrenheit has more precision for the temperatures you most commonly feel. Day-to-day you're likely to feel temps between 10-32°C (range of 22°), which is 50-90°F (range of 40°). It might not like a big deal, but I can tell a difference in my house when setting my thermostat from 68°F to 69°F; conversely, if I turn my thermostat to C mode both values get rounded to 20.

But yes, as an American, I think of CPU temps in terms of C, I know water freezes at 0°C/32°F, I know water boils at 100°C but have never committed to memory what it is in F, and in chem classes we always use C/K.

conversely, if I turn my thermostat to C mode both values get rounded to 20.

You should find a better thermostat. Most thermostats that I have used had at least a precision of 0.5 ĀŗC.

I find the conversion between the two easy enough to do it my head.

This isn't exact but is close enough for conversations and 99% of my needs.

(Temp in F - 30) / 2

Examples

70F: 70F - 30 = 40 40 / 2 = 20C 10F: 10F - 30 = -20 -20 / 2 = -10

The actual number is 21 / -12 but this is close enough for me 99.9% of the time

When you actually need to convert, sure. For conversation, try it my way. It'll be noticeably more efficient.

This, for sure. I live in the US and wanted to learn to understand Celsius so I switched my phone to use it. Internalizing a system works where translating/converting does not. I quickly learned that I feel comfortable in temperatures in the 20s. Since I feel comfortable in Fahrenheit temps in the upper 60s to mid 70s I can guess what the conversion is for most temps, but I don't have to do it to understand that I like how 22 C feels.

Similarly, if you're traveling and having to use a foreign currency I prefer to establish an idea in my head of cheap, reasonable, expensive than stopping to convert every price exactly. A "reasonable price" is relative to the item and location, of course, and should also affect my perspective.

Absorbing a new system by this method works fairly easily for temperatures and money, but less so for other measurements. I don't have as fine-tuned a sense of what ounces, pounds, or grams feel like as I do units of temperature. And I am always adding or subtracting 12 to understand time when expressed as 13h and up.

During the brief period when the US was encouraging metric system understanding there were many highway speed limit signs expressed as 55 mph / 88 kph. Every time I need to make that conversion I think of 5/8 because of that sign. And I usually just make guesstimates that work well enough.

I like learning new things. The generation before me in my family turned off their brains long ago and now suffer dementia. I work to keep my mind active. Learning other units of measure is one example.

Finally I'll say that I WISH I could get to a point of understanding languages this way without translation.

Terrific insight. I had often wondered if that alone would assist with adoption if it became standard in the US. That, or we would just print it in two formats all the time..

I'm originally from the US. Since living in Europe, I can't believe how much easier the metric system is. I can not convert between the two so I dropped imperial. The only time I deal with it is when I call family in the states.

I do recall, when I was a kid, they tried to convert the US to metric, but it failed miserably.

Change is hard. In Europe we wanted to drop daylight saving time, but nobody could agree on which hour to keep. So it's here to stay. Sigh.
Same thing in North America.
Actually no. This year was the last spring forward, at least for the US. We're not falling back to standard time this year and never will again.
Leave it to the US to, in the choice between a "standard" thing and an off-standard thing to choose the off-standard option.

nobody could agree on which hour to keep. So it's here to stay

Is it really? I thought it was just postponed. Or do you say it juat because it seems to be always postponing

Maybe I'm too pessimistic.
The parliament voted to abolish them in 2019, but instead of agreeing on a specific time, or discussing it at the council level, they polled each country individually. We got incoherent results, obviously, and I don't think any progress has been made since then.
Admittedly they had bigger fish to fry, so maybe once the covid and the war are over, it'll get sorted out.

they didn't really try. it's more of a suggestion (and still is). metric is standard in the US within science, just not among regular folks because commercially it's not as dramatic, i.e. news stations dramatize 100F!!! since it sounds way more dramatic than 38°C. if the news and commercial products started using metric, people would quickly switch over.

unfortunately a lot of imperial shit has started migrating to europe due to chinese products being produced for the US market and then sold in europe as an afterthought using imperial units.

unfortunately a lot of imperial shit has started migrating to europe due to chinese products being produced for the US market and then sold in europe as an afterthought using imperial units.

Remember buying TVs in centimetres?

Nope. Electronics is one industry where imperal still wins for some reason
I remember buying TVs in centimeters. It was a thing. Monitors have been imperial as long as I can remember, but TVs were metric. They only switched when they got bigger for whatever reason.
You already got me dying mentioning 38c. Its just a case of what you've grown up with. USA should defo swap, but they would have to display both for a long time for people to understand. If the weather and such started showing both and mentioning temps in both, then yeah it would probably take off.
Holy smokes that's over 300°K!
@aproposnix @sisyphean so you're a genXer or a late #boomer
Definitely GenX NOT Boomer.

I had once heard described that fahrenheit's best feature is that you can go "oh, 1-100, 'sheesh, that's really cold!' to 'hoof, that's pretty hot!'" and yeah, while I was in the US where most temperatures (RIP Florida) change all the time, that sure was convenient.

However, living in a country that always stays in the 80-100 range, the 'oh fuck, the water's freezing' to 'oh fuck, the heat death of the sun is upon us' is a MUCH more useful scale to knowing if we've entered the apocalypse already.

US centrism summed up.
c/ShitAmericansSay
I live in the United States and although I grew up here using Fahrenheit, I switched to Celsius almost 10 years ago. Part of my reason for switching was the rest of the world was using Celsius and every time they would mention the temperature, I had no clue if that was very hot, or just right and kept having to convert, so since there were not that many countries that used Fahrenheit, I switched. I still know what the comfortable range is in Fahrenheit, but now I also know in Celsius as I use it every day. Also, I no longer appear to be an old curmudgeon that is resistant to using a system the rest of the world already uses.
I did exactly this but with 24 hour clock lol
Can you set your thermostat using Celsius?
Fahrenheit is better. Fight me
Ha! You can't just say "fight me" and then disappear! What are your arguments?
The range for livable temperatures follows a more reasonable scale. Hot is really high numbers. Cold is low. The exact temperature is more precise because the range is larger.
Celsius is fine for scientists but for the regular person Fahrenheit has a better range.
Also I'm biased.

I'm also biased.

But:

  • Celsius is easy to understand, even for children: water freezes at 0°C, boils at 100°C.
  • It is understood by more people in the world.
  • If the US used Celsius, understanding scientific papers and data would be easier for common people.
  • In Celsius, the range of livable temperatures for humans (-20 to 40°C) still gives plenty of precision. Additionally, each step in the Celsius scale corresponds to a bigger change in "feel" of the temperature, which leads to a more intuitive understanding of temperature changes.
Your first 3 points, I can agree with. We will have to agree to disagree on the last one.