Despite the downvotes, you are absolutely correct.
Let’s all start out agreeing that units of measurement (distance, length, weight, etc.) in the US is absolutely idiotic. I will back up every European who says this, 100%. Miles, inches, pounds, pints, quarts, fractions; it’s a mess. Objectively, if I remove all my cultural biases (I’m American) metric is just better. A lot better. No question.
And when we are talking about scientific pursuit, and probably cooking too, Celsius is a great unit of measure.
But ambient temperature, the temperature of the environment, Fahrenheit is better. It covers the range of human experience and neatly ties it to a 1-100 scale. It’s a “how hot is it” scale. Celsius’ -18 – 38 degrees just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense when describing the temperatures you will experience during 99% of your time on earth. Further, Celsius’ units are slightly too big to useful, I’ve seen weather reports in Europe say the expected temperature to a 10th of a degree, while Fahrenheit is granular enough not to need to.
Metrics base ten is great when it comes to distance and weight. And it accurately allows for relative comparison (ten meters is twice that of five.) But ambient temperature does not work like that; 20 degrees is not twice that of 10, and the base 10 units doesn’t effectively exist for temperature.
To all those who will downvote me, I get it. You’re very used to being on the objectively right side of sanity re: units of measurement and rightfully so. But I ask you to set aside your cultural bias and muscle memory for a moment and objectively think about what range of measurement makes more sense for ambient temperature and ambient temperature only.
Put another way, with Celsius, one has to be accustomed to the possible range of values. With Fahrenheit, most people understand 1-100 intuitively.
A temperature scale from 0-100 for me implies that the perfect temperature for most people would be right in the middle at 50F. If 0 is too cold and 100 too hot, 5 should be just right, and it ain’t.
Scorcher in Ireland is 18C because the weather here rarely goes above it. Max daytime temperature in July is generally 20C according to this page. I’d say our European neighbours barely consider that t-shirt weather. It’s humid as all fuck here nearly all the time so that does affect perception of the heat.
On the upside we very rarely go below 0C either so driving conditions are nearly always good.
Why the obsession with integers? For weather we normally add a decimal point. And while I don’t agree that 18°C is a scorcher that means there are 29 commonly used values between 15 and 18°C.
In the metric system we are very used to decimal parts in units.
Edit: I mean we add one digit after a decimal point: eg. My thermostat shows 18.7°C for example.
I mean…That’s exactly what I do too. The difference between 67F and 69F is not something you could reasonably put your finger on. 15 and 17C though is noticeable.
Taking body temperatures? Of course we measure the extra decimal place.
Despite the downvotes, you are absolutely correct.
Let’s all start out agreeing that units of measurement (distance, length, weight, etc.) in the US is absolutely idiotic. I will back up every European who says this, 100%. Miles, inches, pounds, pints, quarts, fractions; it’s a mess. Objectively, if I remove all my cultural biases (I’m American) metric is just better. A lot better. No question.
And when we are talking about scientific pursuit, and probably cooking too, Celsius is a great unit of measure.
But ambient temperature, the temperature of the environment, Fahrenheit is better. It covers the range of human experience and neatly ties it to a 1-100 scale. It’s a “how hot is it” scale. Celsius’ -18 – 38 degrees just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense when describing the temperatures you will experience during 99% of your time on earth. Further, Celsius’ units are slightly too big to useful, I’ve seen weather reports in Europe say the expected temperature to a 10th of a degree, while Fahrenheit is granular enough not to need to.
Metrics base ten is great when it comes to distance and weight. And it accurately allows for relative comparison (ten meters is twice that of five.) But ambient temperature does not work like that; 20 degrees is not twice that of 10, and the base 10 units doesn’t effectively exist for temperature.
To all those who will downvote me, I get it. You’re very used to being on the objectively right side of sanity re: units of measurement and rightfully so. But I ask you to set aside your cultural bias and muscle memory for a moment and objectively think about what range of measurement makes more sense for ambient temperature and ambient temperature only.
Put another way, with Celsius, one has to be accustomed to the possible range of values. With Fahrenheit, most people understand 1-100 intuitively.
A temperature scale from 0-100 for me implies that the perfect temperature for most people would be right in the middle at 50F. If 0 is too cold and 100 too hot, 5 should be just right, and it ain’t.
Spoken exactly like someone who just isn’t used to the scale. It’s all just a matter of what you’re used to.
15C - T-shirt weather
18C - Scorcher out lads. Get the sun cream on
25C - Melting point of an Irish person
30C - Jaysus
> 30C - Hubris to go out
You only have 3 integers between t-shirt weather and scorcher!? That’s not enough.
65F is 18.333 C
75F is 23.8889 C
85F is 29.4444 C
95F is 35 C
Scorcher in Ireland is 18C because the weather here rarely goes above it. Max daytime temperature in July is generally 20C according to this page. I’d say our European neighbours barely consider that t-shirt weather. It’s humid as all fuck here nearly all the time so that does affect perception of the heat.
On the upside we very rarely go below 0C either so driving conditions are nearly always good.
Why the obsession with integers? For weather we normally add a decimal point. And while I don’t agree that 18°C is a scorcher that means there are 29 commonly used values between 15 and 18°C.
In the metric system we are very used to decimal parts in units.
Edit: I mean we add one digit after a decimal point: eg. My thermostat shows 18.7°C for example.
We also use decimal points when accuracy matters (like taking the temp of someone alive). For most things though we can just use whole numbers.
I mean…That’s exactly what I do too. The difference between 67F and 69F is not something you could reasonably put your finger on. 15 and 17C though is noticeable.
Taking body temperatures? Of course we measure the extra decimal place.
Again, this is just down to what you’re used to.
LOOK at what Europeans have been demanding your respect for all this time
I am 38% certain that the sun will rise tomorrow. 38 being the most certain I can be; you’re just not used to my scale. :-)
Preach