early_riser5d ago

My fellow 'Muricans, do you prefer metric or standard measurements?

https://lemmy.world/post/44373030

My fellow 'Muricans, do you prefer metric or standard measurements? - Lemmy.World

We’re taught both metric and US customary units in school. I prefer metric for most things, to the point I have a metric-only tape measure among other things. However, I’ll die on the hill that Fahrenheit is superior for ambient air temperature. 0 degrees to 100 degrees neatly encompasses the range of average surface temperatures seen throughout the year in the contiguous US.

Show threadsmeg

I always preferred metric and Celsius. When I lived in South Korea, I was able to adapt immediately. Now I live in Europe and it makes all of the conversions easier.

Americans resistant to metric, in my opinion, are not very smart.

Mar 17 at 12:29pmWeb
Show threadsorghum4d ago

Murican’ here. The only place I prefer Fahrenheit is in weather mainly for how ironically base 10 it scales for human related comfortability for outdoor activity.

100°+ dangerous heat 90s very hot, drink lots of water 80s shorts weather 70s comfortable 60s long sleeves 50s jacket weather 40s bring a coat 30s coat and hat (water freezing is here at 32°) 20s layers 10s insulated layers 0s very cold, protect exposed skin -0s dangerous cold

Everywhere else I’m fine for C°

Show threadOrygin4d ago
You can just scale it down and have the same experience. It’s all just habit and familiarity
Show threadsorghum4d ago
The whole point is that it is ironically base 10. I thought that was the goal?
Show threadschnapsman4d ago
Base 10 is nice for crossing regimes of scales, orders of magnitude. But we don’t really engage with temperature that way. The problem I have with F-heit on its own, is that it’s much too precise. The difference of a degree is meaningless, especially when considering weather. Fahrenheit weather maps are cluttered, dials and buttons on thermostats and in cars are slow, thermometer readings change too frequently, etc. USian shoe sizes have the opposite problem. If you need to use half sizes all the time then FFS just multiply the scale by 2.
Show threadOrygin4d ago

That’s incidental:

he adjusted the scale so that the melting point of ice would be 32 degrees, and body temperature 96 degrees, so that 64 intervals would separate the two, allowing him to mark degree lines on his instruments by simply bisecting the interval 6 times (since 64 = 26).

Show threadsorghum4d ago
I mean, base 2 is superior imho.
Show threadsmeg4d ago

30 is hot

20 is not

10 is cool

0 is freezing

-10 is terribly cold

Show threadValmond4d ago
Dangerous heat depends on humidity, it varies wildly.