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Stephen Mack
Fahrenheit Is a Better Temperature Scale Than Celsius [Gawker] - http://thevane.gawker.com/fahrenh...
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From the article by Dennis Mersereau (tagged as "very controversial opinino"): "Celsius is a scale, as Very Serious Scientists enjoy pointing out, that revolves around the freezing and boiling points of water. It's nice and even: 0°C is freezing and 100°C is boiling. "It just makes sense!" Sure! Since Celsius is based on water, it would make wonderful sense to use Celsius for the environmental temperature if we lived in water. Until we sprout gills and start flapping around the Gulf, we should use Fahrenheit for air temperatures." (Second image is from a comment.) - Stephen Mack
I strongly disagree with this. His main arguments are "Fahrenheit makes more sense", which is completely subjective, and "Fahrenheit is more precise if you don't allow decimals", which is just arbitrary. - Andrew C (see frenf.it)
In comments, he claims he can feel the diff in just one degree F, but I dunno, I rarely even feel the diff between one degree C. I think the precision argument is irrelevant as well as bogus. - Andrew C (see frenf.it)
Most of the weather apps I've seen don't use decimals for Celsius, so for me, Fahrenheit is much more precise for that specific purpose. For almost anything else, I wish we were just standardized (much like how I feel about metric measurements for most things.) A few, I just do better at estimating in the one I learned, so it would suck to switch, but most, I just want consistency. - Jennifer Dittrich
We should either use Fahrenheit or Kelvin. - Amit Patel
those who internalized Fahrenheit, growing up with it, can tell this one degree difference. Those, who grew up with Celsius internalized it and feel that one degree difference. It has very little to do with precision imo. - eugenio
I think some people are more sensitive to temperature than others. I can't tell the difference between Coke and Pepsi in a blind taste test, but I've seen proof that others can. Similarly, I doubt I can tell the difference of one degree of Fahrenheit personally, but I am willing to believe others can. - Stephen Mack
Andrew, I agree the "Fahrenheit makes more sense" argument is subjective, but I happen to subjectively agree with it! - Stephen Mack
Quick anecdote: While I was working at SGI in 1997, they introduced a new graphics API, which they dubbed "Fahrenheit." (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... for details.) There was an internal-only newsgroup called sgi.bad-attitude, which was basically for complaints. SGI had offices around the world. The Europeans were outspoken about what a terrible name Fahrenheit was for a new API. As one poster put it, "To the marketing drones in Mountain View HQ, the word 'Fahrenheit' evokes 'HOT.' But to most of the world, 'Fahrenheit' just means 'old-fashioned, out of step, obsolete.' " - Stephen Mack
I'd never really thought about it before, but does that mean that 100C in Denver is different than it is in Death Valley? - COMPLICATED MR. NOODLE
Curtis, no, it's not a relative scale. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... -- it's a bit complicated now compared to what it was historically. As the article says, "From 1744 until 1954, 0 °C was defined as the freezing point of water and 100 °C was defined as the boiling point of water, both at a pressure of one standard atmosphere with mercury being the working material." But then it changed to a more precise but more complicated definition, but, no, it's not dependent on your location. - Stephen Mack