Gollum to Science [email protected]English • 2 years agoFahrenheit vs. Celsius vs. Kelvini.imgur.comimagemessage-square149fedilinkarrow-up1791
arrow-up1791imageFahrenheit vs. Celsius vs. Kelvini.imgur.comGollum to Science [email protected]English • 2 years agomessage-square149fedilink
minus-square@[email protected]linkfedilinkEnglish5•edit-22 years 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]linkfedilinkEnglish7•2 years 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@[email protected]linkfedilinkEnglish1•2 years 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.