Mastodawn

Fahrenheit is exactly what is wrong with USA

https://lemmy.world/post/44602363

Fahrenheit is exactly what is wrong with USA - Lemmy.World

So every time the Celsius Fahrenheit debate comes out, there is always the point made about “Fahrenheit makes more sense, it tells you how is out there: 0 is freezing, 100 is roasting hot”. And yes, that might be accurate but showcases that USA citizens only care about themselves, they do not even care about physics or chemistry. The “it works for me therefore it is good” mentality is what they bring to the world and the most clear example is their choice of framing for justifying Fahrenheit over Celsius.

subOrange 1d ago

Seems like I have pissed off many of you. Not my intention but not undesirable either.

I disagree with you but don’t worry about the downvoters. There is a certain subset of fediverse users who will downvote anything remotely against their views no matter how banal the statement is.

InvalidName2 1d ago

If I had to guess, it’s probably less about pissing people off and more about your use of common logical fallacies (ex: straw man) and/or the click-baity title. If only there were an eye roll button you’d have been spared some of these folks’ opinions and down votes. But then I presume that’s the point – engagement.

Rhynoplaz 1d ago

So every time this debate comes out, there is always some sad Celsius fanboy that has to be all like, I need to remember the exact temperature my water boils at! It’s obvious that they just don’t know how to deal with the frustration of having to use decimals just to figure out what to wear.

Tolookah 1d ago

This is why everything should be in Kelvin. 294 room temperature, water freezes at 273, boils at 373. Easy peasy numbers.

apfelwoiSchoppen 1d ago

Shit yeah bro, where do I sign up for your UN?

subOrange 1d ago

The exact amount of times I have used decimals when deciding my choice of clothes is 0.00

That makes absolute zero sense

subOrange 1d ago

It did to me in the shower.

mrnobody 1d ago

I think in your first paragraph, you meant Celsius? With the 0-100 comment.

Anyway, is not really being selfish, it’s that most people don’t know or don’t understand what they’ve not been taught, and an argument could be made that "it’s too difficult"to switch. Same reason we have MPH not Km/h, 12 inches = Foot vs CM or M. Or pounds (Lbs) not kilograms.

I would love to adopt that system as its more intuitive to understand.

I also like the argument of 13 months at 28 days each for a solid Sunday - Saturday approach. Yes, that only = 364 days, which leaves 1 extra each year plus leap year. I day those are called bonus days, where everything is truly shut down for a time to be together, rest, enjoy, etc. Don’t make it a big holiday where travel is involved as that requires fuel stations to remain open or grocery stores to operate. Anything like emergency services and whatnot get paid 3x holiday pay not just 2x.

OK one last thing. Fix the goddamn month names!!! Storyteller should be 7, October =8ty, etc. But somewhere along the lines I think we’re aged July and August so those got pushed out of sync two months and so December meaning 10 is more 12 lol. But we all go along with it because of tradition and history. Not stubbornness or selfishness.

Storyteller should be 7, October =8ty, etc. But somewhere along the lines I think we’re aged July and August so those got pushed out of sync two months and so December meaning 10 is more 12 lol.

Good god, how did you go so far off the rails here? Storyteller? We’re aged July and August? I know what you’re fumbling towards, but that’s only because I already know how the calendar got so out of whack.

mrnobody 13h ago

Oh, dude, my bad!! I’ve switched keyboards for swipe and sometimes don’t fully proofread everything bc I forget it’s not accurate.

Fixed. Storyteller, idk how, but should’ve been September 😖 fixed the others too.

givesomefucks 1d ago

“Fahrenheit makes more sense, it tells you how is out there: 0 is freezing, 100 is roasting hot”.

Two things can be true.

What you said makes no logical or rational sense

You think it makes sense to you.

But all that tells us, is you don’t understand anything about what you’re talking about

ToiletFlushShowerScream 1d ago

0K then.

Metric zero or imperial zero?

Onomatopoeia 1d ago

Yawn.

Go back to whatever hole you crawled out of.

OK, you don’t like the US. That’s all you had to say.

And even THAT is tiresome. Get a new shtick.

subOrange 1d ago

We are literally made out of water, mate, that was the whole point: Celsius is based on the most important thing that keeps us alive.

SwingingTheLamp 1d ago

Hot take: Zero should be at the point of maximum density, which is 3.98°C. That’s arguably one of its most important properties for the evolution of life as we know it.

over_clox 1d ago

Meh, they could have picked basically any chemical element or molecule to base their freezing/melting/boiling temperatures around. In the case of Celsius, they chose water, H2O, at sea level, at Earth’s atmospheric pressure, to base their standard temperatures around.

A hypothetical standard temperature scale could just as well be made around iron in a vacuum with zero atmospheric pressure floating around in space with zero gravity, but that’s not very practical down here on Earth, and water is rather abundant on the planet (ok let’s not get into the whole pure vs saltwater thing, but you get my point).

Anyways, both Celsius and Fahrenheit are equally scientifically valid, as there’s a direct conversion formula to go from one to the other. Fahrenheit just seems easier to us in the states when thinking about the weather. 0 is fucking cold, 100 is fucking hot.

subOrange 1d ago

Not any element or anything, but water: that thing that makes up to 80% of our bodies and that without it, we couldn’t survive.

over_clox 1d ago

I did say molecule, right? Yes, yes I did. I specifically mentioned water, and the molecular form H2O.

Thanks for paying attention.

/s

apfelwoiSchoppen 1d ago

So a justifiable and logical argument to how humans feel cold and heat in the temperature scale debate is selfish? 🧐

Not saying that I side with F over C or vise versa, but that’s a weird conclusion you’ve drawn.

tensorpudding 1d ago

I would not agree that Fahrenheit is what is wrong with the USA but the jingoistic opposition to metricization is probably a symptom of delusional American exceptionalism, which does hit closer to the mark.

reddig33 1d ago

It’s stupid that we still aren’t on the metric system.

Both systems are completely arbitrary. It’s weird that you would think using either would be a mark of selfishness.

Proprietary_Blend 1d ago

Who cares. If you have a hard time with numbers then just use your Celsius. It doesn’t matter.

WolfmanEightySix 1d ago

Doesn’t Celsius use numbers?

CerebralHawks 1d ago

Celsius is based on water. 0ºC is freezing, 100ºC is boiling. Water is a good metric to go on, but it’s not very good for conveying to humans what is hot and what is cold, because even though we are made up of a lot of water, 0-100ºF is a scale that makes more sense to us. The equivalent in Celsius is something like -15 to something like 45ºC. And that makes less sense.

I’m a huge advocate of metric everywhere, but to say Celsius is objectively better than Fahrenheit is kind of silly.

SwingingTheLamp 1d ago

Right, Celsius is not even part of the metric system. It is an honorary member of the SI units, but that doesn’t make it metric. It would make little sense to talk about kilo-degrees, or micro-degrees, because degrees Celsius doesn’t relate well to the amount of heat. That’s what Kelvin is for.

over_clox 1d ago

Kelvin is still rooted in Celsius, just by an offset of 273.15

SwingingTheLamp 1d ago

For that matter, so is Fahrenheit, with the relationship (x + 459.67) × ⁠5/9⁠ K, where x is degrees F.

over_clox 1d ago

Let’s make a new scale, between 0 and 1

Zero is where everything turns solid, One where everything boils and vaporizes…

SwingingTheLamp 7h ago

Finally, a sensible proposal!

I think its fine wanting to stay with the frame of reference which makes sense to you because you grew up with it.

Horse power for cars is stupid too. kW is a way better metric. But hp is what i’m used to and is compartmentalized in my brain in reference to what it actually means. I know what 50hp means exactly. 50kW? IDK more powerful than 50hp but still a pretty shitty engine. But i need to convert it to hp to have a better idea what the number actually means.

So “It worked for me my whole life, whatever” is pretty understandable for me. Even though freedom units in general just boggle my mind. They’re sooo bad compared to metric.

It gets funny though when americans start to argue that acshully eg Fahrenheit makes so much more sense because of _some random bullshit _.

Fahrenheit was literally devised by a physicist, Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, a European, mind you.

It was based on physical properties, too. Originally 0 was the freezing point of a replicable water solution, and 96 was set at human body temperature (96 used as it made dividing a thermometer easier). It was later recalibrated to put boiling at 212, 180 degrees from freezing, but that’s the original basis.

There is no god-ordained rule that states that 0 has to be the freezing point of water, nor 100 the boiling point.

Fahrenheit also has an inherent advantage to Celsius in that for every 5 degrees C there are 9 degrees F. There is more inherent precision.

GreyEyedGhost 1d ago

In metric, we aren’t scared of using a decimal if we have to. Our thermometers can be as precise as we need them.

Yet weather reports rarely include them.

GreyEyedGhost 1d ago

…because we don’t need them.

You go if you want to be precise as Fahrenheit is without decimals.

GreyEyedGhost 10h ago

Weather forecasts are only accurate to 1 to 2 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 1 degree Celsius. So the only example you’ve given where Fahrenheit is “superior” is one where the accuracy is so low that we just shrug and give a number in the middle of the range. This doesn’t make using Fahrenheit more accurate, this just makes the scale irrelevant and we use a whole number because having a convention where we skip some would be pointless.

As for being more precise without decimals, I live in a country with half-decent education standards, so decimals and fractions don’t scare me.

It isn’t about being “scared” of them, it is about them being used.

And we don’t just make forecasts, we report actual temperatures.

But whatever, you just want an air of superiority.

GreyEyedGhost 2h ago

Actual historical temperature data is recorded in tenths of a degree Celsius, because full degrees, Celsius or Fahrenheit, aren’t accurate enough. They still aren’t reported in the media, because they don’t matter in an everyday context.

Look, as far as imperial measurements go, Fahrenheit is pretty good. Any temperature scale is going to be arbitrary, and the reasons for Fahrenheit are valid enough. But, frankly, 180 divisions of temperature is nonsensical. The accuracy just isn’t necessary in daily life, and isn’t enough from a scientific context. And if I’m going to use an arbitrary scale, I may as well use the same one as just about all the other ones that don’t have some reason to be divided into multiple different segments, like degrees on a circle. So at that point, you can go decimal, like virtually everything else in the metric system, or you can go with a multiple of 60 for no damned reason besides history.

HubertManne 1d ago

I don’t think that argument is about using it for science experiments but for weather.

One thing dumber than Americans still using Fahrenheit is non-Americans being obsessed with Americans still using Fahrenheit

XeroxCool 1d ago

Scientifically, Celsius has no more merit than Fahrenheit. Either use Kelvin on the daily or get off your high horse. Knowing 0C and 100C as important water temperatures isn’t special when your preferred air temperature is 24C, a value no more natural than 32F being the freezing point of water.

You get used to whatever system you use.

daggermoon 1d ago

I’m American and I use Celsius. I don’t talk to anyone about the weather so I use the one I like.

Fahrenheit is British ya Dingus.

resipsaloquitur 9h ago

Close.

He was a German scientist in Poland, actually.

But it came to the US by way of the British, therefore it’s British for the purposes of this.