• Khrux@ttrpg.network
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    1 year ago

    I’m not sure I agree with the take for farenheit. It’s an arbitraty choice, and to me who grew up in a country that uses celsius, I find that far easier to understand and farenheit may as well be random numbers to me.

    • Margot Robbie@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Fahrenheit was not an entirely arbitrary choice: it was defined based on two points of reference that could be measured at the time: the freezing temperature of an ammonium chloride brine is used as 0, and the best estimate for the average human body temperature is set at 96.

      Over time, as the freezing point and boiling point of water at sea level atmospheric pressure proves to be more accurate reference points, the Fahrenheit scale was adjusted to provide exact conversion to Celsius.

      • booty [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        Fahrenheit was not an entirely arbitrary choice

        it’s not arbitrary, it’s based on the uh, the freezing temperature of uh, ammonium chloride! we’re all familiar with how cold that is! and, and, and, uh, the upper end is, uh … they decided on 96. it’s not arbitrary!!! wojak-nooo

      • rainynight65@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        Are you telling me they were able to measure those things, but not the boiling and freezing point of water?

        Sure, let me just whip up that ammonium chloride mixture and travel somewhere where I can get it close to freezing so I can know the zero reference of that scale. What, did the just carry that NH₄Cl around for convenience?

        Fahrenheit was proposed in 1724, Celsius dates back to 1742, so there wasn’t that much time between the two.

        • Margot Robbie@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Boiling point of water varies based on atmospheric pressure, water boils at a lower temperature high up in the mountains, for example, which could be why the estimated human body temperature is set as a standard, because it is consistent to reproduce as long as there are people around.

          The freezing point of water is not affected by atmospheric pressure, however, it is affected by dissolved material in the water. Using a saturate solution of a salt would establish that consistency as well as lower the freezing point to create a bigger temperature range.

            • Margot Robbie@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              A bit of mistake I made there, I should say that the freezing point is relatively unaffected by pressure compared to the boiling point, and the amount of dissolved impurities are going to have a greater effect.

    • imasnyper@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      I grew up in Canada, but in a temperate climate area on the border with the US. Winter? Use Celsius. Summer? Use Fahrenheit. For me Celsius makes a lot more sense right around 0C. After about 15C my brain switches over and starts using Fahrenheit. I like the Fahrenheit scale from 60-100F for gauging the summer months. The Celsius scale isn’t granular enough. It feels like there’s a big difference between 18C and 22C versus the comparable 64F-72F. But I also was taught early a quick and dirty conversion. C to F, double and add 30. F to C subtract 30 and divide by 2.

        • sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net
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          1 year ago

          I made fermented maple syrup a few years ago.

          It tastes like shit. Imagine you take a green branch off a tree and suck on it, then you add alcohol. Bleh.

    • Zorque@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      “I grew up with a completely different scale, so this scale makes no sense to me!”

      Well no fucking shit.

    • Zink@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      Whatever your grew up with will always seem more intuitive for most people. But given that I grew up with Fahrenheit, the whole “0 is cold as fuck, 100 is hot as fuck” thing works for me.

        • Zink@programming.dev
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          1 year ago

          Yeah, pretty much. I figured it was probably implied that I’m in the states. :)

          I mean, SI units are objectively the best, and align with metric in most cases, but my brain is conditioned to accept Fahrenheit and miles per hour natively. Celsius and km/h have to go through an interpreter to convert them.

          I have to say though, km/h has that “0 to 100” thing going for it that Fahrenheit does. 100 isn’t the fastest you’ll go, but it’s a typical highway speed.

          • PancakeLegend@mander.xyz
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            1 year ago

            They’re one of only 3 countries in the world who still use °F, and represent 98% of the population who do so. So it’s basically just America.