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Celsius or Fahrenheit?

Which is the better unit of measurement?

  • Celsius

    Votes: 1,414 78.6%

  • Fahrenheit

    Votes: 297 16.5%

  • Kelvin

    Votes: 87 4.8%
  • Total voters
    1,798
rjinaz

rjinaz

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
28,686
Phoenix
Ruisu said:
But why would your practical starting point be 32?
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I never said it's a good starting point at all. Ideally it would be 0, where C gets it right IMO. But the range of 0-100 is a range most Americans are going to use at some point. Our climates vary vast even by driving just 200 miles or even less. For example, while it may be 60 F here in Phoenix, I can drive to Flagstaff 120 miles away and it could be in the 30s.

I guess I just like the range better considering I've lived in many climates here in the US. If the US switched to C, I wouldn't cry about it.
 
Barnak

Barnak

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,243
Canada
The only time I use Fahrenheit is for setting my oven.
I don't know why they never bothered changing it to Celsius for ovens where I live, considering we don't even use Fahrenheit here to begin with.
I guess they're all made with the USA in mind and they never bothered changing it for the few millions living up north and it's been that way for decades since then.
 
Dehnus

Dehnus

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
1,900
Miamiwesker said:
This 100%. Unless you are a scientist you are not using 0 for freezing and 100 for boiling, it means nothing to you. What matters is what you feel when you go outside, what temperature the weather is. A much more spacious, logical 0-100 (and extras) scale is far better to gauge weather temperature than something used for science experiments.

100 is super hot, Zero is super cold. You can easily tell the difference in each group of 10. 90 feels a certain way, 80 feels something else, 70 is a good comfortable temp and so on. You have space for nuance, for fine temperature control in your house. What kind of ugly ass scale is -15 to 40 ,like 27 is way different than 31, how is that better than something as easily identifiable as 60 to 80 in a scale that makes sense for temperature.
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0 super cold! HAH let me give you an arrogant Norwegian Smirk...

ready?

😏

There, that was it. Did you experience my full Norwegian arrogance ;).

27 btw isn't that different from 31, it all depends on things like moisture, wind, wind direction, etc, etc. Temperature and feeling hot or cold is very relative for humans, women feel it very different then men and all of us feel it different.
 
Lyrick

Lyrick

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,818
Ruisu said:
Idk, I feel like the point of reference of Zero should be a really universal one for a scale. What you described to me as 0F sounds too subjective, 17C for me for example is the temperature I put my air conditioning in when I need to compensate for a really hot scalding day, so really fucking cold.
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The point of origin is complete arbitrary, unless you're dealing in Kelvin and have some weird fascination with the number 273.16.

0F is an important for exposed skin/frostbite reasons. With normal wind speeds 0-10 mph, below 0 is when Frostbite can set in rapidly.
The opposing point of that is when the temps are too warm and may start to put people at risk of heat exposure... Which happens above 100F.

Essentially on the Fahrenheit Scale below zero can be harmful to humans with pretty limited exposure and above 100 can be harmful to humans due to similar relatively short exposure.

Of course memorizing -17.77778C as the limit before one should not leave their home with exposed skin, or alternately memorizing that prolonged exposure to 37.777778C could result in various levels of heat exposure health issues may seem just as normal as knowing that the temp has fallen to 32 and snow is likely.
 
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rjinaz

rjinaz

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
28,686
Phoenix
Dehnus said:
0 super cold! HAH let me give you an arrogant Norwegian Smirk...

ready?

😏

There, that was it. Did you experience my full Norwegian arrogance ;).

27 btw isn't that different from 31, it all depends on things like moisture, wind, wind direction, etc, etc. Temperature and feeling hot or cold is very relative for humans, women feel it very different then men and all of us feel it different.
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It's definitely not perfect but there is generally a concensus that 70s is the perfect weather range. Again, in general, and then you work your way around that. 60s cool, 80s warm would be the more popular opinions. Though yes to some 60s is warm or even cold and 80s are hot. And it also depends on humidity and where you live, but the opinions are generally widely shared. Most can look on the weather channel and if it says it's going to be 60s might want to bring a jacket and if it's in the 80s might want to wear shorts.
 
captive

captive

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
17,429
Houston
RedSonja said:
Celsius is an easy form of communication form a simple person like me:

0 or less - it's goingbto be really cold
0 - 10 - oh, chilly
11-15 - nippy
15-22 - right nice
23-27 - quite warm to hot
28+ - scorchio

That's it with Celsius for civilian life. Is that science? Probably not.
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haha my pool is averaging over 10 degrees warmer than your "scorchio" right now.
 
Barnak

Barnak

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,243
Canada
CampFreddie said:
As an Englishman, I'm wincing in discomfort at people who say Fahrenheit is best because the range of normal weather temperatures is 0-100 F.
If -15 to 40 C is normal then you must be living in some sort of post-nuclear hellscape?
Here, temperature ranges from just below freezing to about 30 C. So, like 25 F to 80 or something.
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Here in Quebec, Canada, our temperatures throughout all year can as low as -20 and as high as 35 Celsius.
We get cold and snow from end of November to end of April and hot and humid summers between June and September. The lowest temperatures are in January & February, while the hottest ones are in July and August.

Although we did get a full week of 32-34 Celsius at the end of May, barely a month after the last bit of snow melt away. Thanks climate change!

If you add wind chills in winter and humidity in summer, you can feel like its -30 and +42 easily. Doesn't feel like post-nuclear hellscape if you ask me(although I don't go outside if I can when it's that bad), we just get both extremes depending on the season.
 
Trejo

Trejo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,830
k1odQ3p.png


Celsius, because it's what I and the rest of the world have been taught to use. Small wonder the poll is so disproportionate.
 
rjinaz

rjinaz

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Oct 25, 2017
28,686
Phoenix
Bisnic said:
Here in Quebec, Canada, our temperatures throughout all year can as low as -20 and as high as 35 Celsius.
We get cold and snow from end of November to end of April and hot and humid summers between June and September. The lowest temperatures are in January & February, while the hottest ones are in July and August.

Although we did get a full week of 32-34 Celsius at the end of May, barely a month after the last bit of snow melt away. Thanks climate change!

If you add wind chills in winter and humidity in summer, you can feel like its -30 and +42 easily. Doesn't feel like post-nuclear hellscape if you ask me, we just get both extremes depending on the season.
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I just saw on the news the other day that the hottest point in the US was 127 degrees F in Death Valley and the lowest was 27 degrees, I want to say Wyoming or Idaho or some such place. Either way it's well within 1000 miles of each other. The temps in the US can vary like crazy on any particular day.
 
Gunny T Highway

Gunny T Highway

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Oct 27, 2017
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I prefer Celsius because that is what I grew up with. Plus since it works around water temperature, 0 degrees is water freezing, 100 degrees is water boiling to evaporation which makes it easy to understand.
 
Psittacus

Psittacus

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,190
I have not once in my life ever felt the need for a more granular temperature scale and I am confused by the number of people that do

(Also if your highest priority is human comfort then the scale you use shouldn't be linear)
 
Tater

Tater

Member
Oct 30, 2017
2,684
Having 180 degrees to express temperature makes it easier for non-scientists, even if it's a whack ass scale. It's not hard to convert, so it's not that big of a deal for those of us who can do math.

I voted for Kelvin, because it pisses me off to no end when the temperature goes from 10F -> 20F, and people are like "Wow, the temperature doubled and it's still cold outside!" And I'm like "if the temperate actually doubled, we would all be on fire"
 
Stopdoor

Stopdoor

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,801
Toronto
Ramsay said:
Fahrenheit:
  • 0: Extremely cold
  • 10: Very cold
  • 20: Chilly
  • 30: Cold
  • 40: Below average
  • 50: Average
  • 60: Above-average
  • 70: Nice weather
  • 80: Hot
  • 90: Very hot
  • 100: Extremely hot
Celsius:
  • 0: Cold
  • 10: Below average
  • 20: Above-average
  • 30: Very hot
  • 40: Extremely hot
  • 50: Everything's on fire and I'm dying!
  • 60: Everything's on fire and I'm dying!
  • 70: Everything's on fire and I'm dying!
  • 80: Everything's on fire and I'm dying!
  • 90: Everything's on fire and I'm dying!
  • 100: Everything's on fire and I'm dying! Oh, and an arbitrary point where water boils.
It's like the IGN review scale, only backwards!
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What the heck is this, why is everyone in this thread ignoring negative Celsius values. The actual useful range of Celsius is -30 to 30, which is nice and round and easy to understand.
 

Deleted member 6215

User requested account closure
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Oct 25, 2017
2,087
Kingpin Rogers said:
Fahrenheit's 0 is actually well below what freezing temp is right? That's just stupid.
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There is nothing inherently obvious about 0 being the point water freezes. It's just as arbitrary as picking any other number because at the end of the day you'll have to memorize it. Not to mention that other substances freeze and boil at different temps, just more stuff to memorize.
 

Deleted member 4783

Oct 25, 2017
4,531
The minds of people defending Farenheit be like:
428f1f773af2455b5e7de81d2ac2541d.gif
 
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Tygre

Tygre

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,921
Chesire, UK
Celsius is objectively superior, and you can tell it is by the ridiculous contortions people using inferior temperature gauges have to go through to act like it's not.
 
PeskyToaster

PeskyToaster

Member
Oct 27, 2017
15,440
Fahrenheit is superior for describing temperatures for humans while Celsius is better for like science experiments.
 
Arkanim94

Arkanim94

Member
Oct 27, 2017
15,091
fester said:
There is nothing inherently obvious about 0 being the point water freezes. It's just as arbitrary as picking any other number because at the end of the day you'll have to memorize it. Not to mention that other substances freeze and boil at different temps, just more stuff to memorize.
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It's like water freezing and boiling has been kind of important for humans for a long time.
 
ElephantShell

ElephantShell

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0 is freezing. Below 0 is below freezing. If I'm going outside and the temperature is below 0 I know what that means. How far below 0 is how much colder than freezing it is. 32 degrees? The fuck does that mean?
 
Edge

Edge

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Oct 25, 2017
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Jakisthe said:
Fahrenheit forever. It actually deals with normal possible temperatures for humans on a range of 0-100 and as such is massively more useful for communicating weather and comfort information. I'm not a water molecule; I'm a person and as a such I care about people specific methods of measurement infinitely more, because I don't especially care about or need to measure/be aware of the relative activity level of a random element which I am not. If I want a scientific approach I'd use Kelvin. Celsius is useless.

If you want to pretend like you boil water by setting a temperature on a stove and then letting it sit there, or freeze water by setting a temperature in a freezer and hoping you got it right, be my guest. I'm going to live in the land of practical reality.
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The practical reality is "Oh shit it's -2°c so the snow stays".

Rest have people already perfectly explained.
 
Lord Error

Lord Error

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,651
The Boat said:
This notion that Farenheit can be easily related to how hot you feel, but Celsius can't is absolutely hilarious. As if it's impossible to know that 30 °C is hot because it's not a big enough number or like the measurements only jump in increments of 10, so you lose accuracy.
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You are right - after all I can relate to C better in those terms as I've used it my whole life. Doesn't change the fact that the F scale is more granular and makes more sense when setting thermostats. I really wish the C scale would just be split in half for more granularity - so the water boils at 200, and it's "really hot outside" at 60 instead of 30.
 
Snake Eater

Snake Eater

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
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Oct 27, 2017
11,385
Ramsay said:
Fahrenheit:
  • 0: Extremely cold
  • 10: Very cold
  • 20: Chilly
  • 30: Cold
  • 40: Below average
  • 50: Average
  • 60: Above-average
  • 70: Nice weather
  • 80: Hot
  • 90: Very hot
  • 100: Extremely hot
Celsius:
  • 0: Cold
  • 10: Below average
  • 20: Above-average
  • 30: Very hot
  • 40: Extremely hot
  • 50: Everything's on fire and I'm dying!
  • 60: Everything's on fire and I'm dying!
  • 70: Everything's on fire and I'm dying!
  • 80: Everything's on fire and I'm dying!
  • 90: Everything's on fire and I'm dying!
  • 100: Everything's on fire and I'm dying! Oh, and an arbitrary point where water boils.
It's like the IGN review scale, only backwards!
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why Fahrenheit is best for weather
 
Westbahnhof

Westbahnhof

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
10,411
Austria
Lyrick said:
Do you find it strange that it's limited to temperatures that align with the non-fractional equivalent of Fahrenheit values. It's a Celsius thermostat, why would it not have the resolution to increment by tenths?
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What's strange about it? 0.1 degrees is a uselessly small increment, 1 degree is a bit too much, so half a degree is perfect. It's the simplest thing.
And you DO have increment by tenths. 5 tenths each time you increment.

Lord Error said:
You are right - after all I can relate to C better in those terms as I've used it my whole life. Doesn't change the fact that the F scale is more granular and makes more sense when setting thermostats. I really wish the C scale would just be split in half for more granularity - so the water boils at 200, and it's "really hot outside" at 60 instead of 30.
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Why do you talk like we're in some weird universe where fractions don't exist? Half a degree is available on most thermostats. Your proposed change seems just really... needless?
 

seki

Member
Oct 30, 2017
111
Anyone arguing that one is better than the other is an idiot. It's like asking what's better, Windows or macOS? The real answer is "I can get porn on both".
 
abellwillring

abellwillring

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
9,278
Austin, TX
Nugnip said:
Water freezes at 0 and boils at 100. It's simple and logical. Celcius is the only acceptable answer.
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...Do we really need to know the temperature water boils at though? How often are you referencing that? When you cook, you turn the dial to high. The water eventually boils. It's fuckin hot, don't put your fingers in it. That's the extent of needing to know about boiling water.

We reference the outside temperature a helluva lot more often and a typical scale of 0-100 makes a lot more sense. The only time the freezing point of water comes into equation is when it might snow. It's easier to show the scale of the difference between 90 and 30 than 30 and 0.
 
Lyrick

Lyrick

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,818
Westbahnhof said:
What's strange about it? 0.1 degrees is a uselessly small increment, 1 degree is a bit too much, so half a degree is perfect. It's the simplest thing.
And you DO have increment by tenths. 5 tenths each time you increment.
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You do realize that your perfect half degree increment directly aligns to a full degree in the Fahrenheit scale... right?
 
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