Gollum to Science [email protected]English • 1 year agoFahrenheit vs. Celsius vs. Kelvini.imgur.comimagemessage-square151fedilinkarrow-up1795arrow-down143
arrow-up1752arrow-down1imageFahrenheit vs. Celsius vs. Kelvini.imgur.comGollum to Science [email protected]English • 1 year agomessage-square151fedilink
minus-square@[email protected]linkfedilinkEnglish3•edit-21 year ago I don’t think how hot humans feel works at all, it’s just arbitrary Fahrenheit was originally calculated to be 64 even divisions between water freezing temp and human body temp, then 32 more units below freezing. Then ambient human body temp was recalculated from 96F to 98.6F. So it’s not exactly arbitrary. It’s based on powers of 2, based upon an inaccurate measurement.
minus-square@[email protected]linkfedilinkEnglish6•1 year agoI mean, the temperature 0 was assigned because it was the lowest temperature that winter in Fahrenheit’s town, and the “powers of two” was only chosen because it was simple to mark degree lines on his instrument. Feels quite arbitrary to me…
minus-square@1847953620linkEnglish0•1 year agoAnd yet, as a person, Fahrenheit seems far more intuitive and Celsius arbitrary.
Fahrenheit was originally calculated to be 64 even divisions between water freezing temp and human body temp, then 32 more units below freezing.
Then ambient human body temp was recalculated from 96F to 98.6F.
So it’s not exactly arbitrary. It’s based on powers of 2, based upon an inaccurate measurement.
I mean, the temperature 0 was assigned because it was the lowest temperature that winter in Fahrenheit’s town, and the “powers of two” was only chosen because it was simple to mark degree lines on his instrument. Feels quite arbitrary to me…
And yet, as a person, Fahrenheit seems far more intuitive and Celsius arbitrary.