this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2023
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Fahrenheit is roughly a 0-100 scale of "places humans can conceivably live". 0-100 scales are more intuitive than a scale from like -15 to 40, which is approximately what celsius uses for the temperatures humans can live at.
If only there was something more specific that a wider range of people could relate to.
Something more specific than how humans relate to the temperature? Why would that be useful? If you're doing science, you should use Celsius. If you're a regular human being, being affected by temperature, you should use fahrenheit.
It would be useful because it gives multiple specific and relatable reference points. How is that not useful?
The way humans relate to the temperature has a huge range and so very vague. Do you say that 0 is when you swap shorts for trousers? Or when you put a hoody on? Or is it when your neighbour puts their hoody on? Or when your friend from Texas puts their hoody on?
It's like when you come across a recipe that calls for a knob of butter. Everyone's knob is a different size, we've just agreed to say that whatever it is, it's enough.
It doesn't matter what other people think about the temperature, it only matters what you think. Fahrenheit is useful in the same sense the word Red is useful: you and I could be seeing totally different colors that we call red, but it doesn't matter because we both point to the same objects as being red.
Fahrenheit has too much precision. Humidity makes the difference between a degree F virtually meaningless. 0-100 is nice but then the minus degrees don't mean anything. In F you go from already fucking cold to even colder. You can think of C being 0-30 with minus being a threshold of more serious cold, poor road conds etc. Celsius is more elegant than it might first appear. Also using it is less confusing and cringey for non-USians.