Science Memes

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Burning Up (mander.xyz)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

-18 is such an arbitrary place for "special precautions". at 0, I know to start driving more carefully since the roads ice up. at -15, i know to wear long johns. at +15, i know to start using a thinner jacket. at -30, i know to use a thick hat and wax on my cheeks to prevent the blood vessels from rupturing. at +30, I know to use a large hat and sun cream on my cheeks to prevent them from burning.

[+] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

see, that's what i'm saying. having a scale that starts at "it really doesn't matter" makes it hard to use for everyday things.

[+] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

no, Celsius starts at +273.15 K, because that's where an element we are all dependent on to live and in contact with every day undergoes an important phase transition.

What happens at 0°F?

[+] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

it starts at +273.15K because that is the lower of the two reference points used in its creation. the Kelvin scale was created later and builds on the Celsius scale. of course lower temps are sorted first, that's not what matters. it's why we call these scales "degrees", after all.

why it matters is because the scale i use every day constantly gets "verified" by passing the zero marker and showing that things outside freeze. that makes it a good reference point that builds its own intuition.

that's what this is all about, after all: how useful a scale is for everyday use. a scale that is relevant to my needs and that has important events happen on easy-to-remember points of the scale requires very little teaching.

[+] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

this all started because of the claim that Fahrenheit is better for "human" temperatures. when saying "that's just because you're used to it" apparently wasn't valid, it spiralled on into this massive discussion where i've tried to show with what i feel is quite a lot of anecdata that indeed, you only feel that Fahrenheit is better for human temperatures because you're used to it. meanwhile, the rest of the world can't understand these numbers at all because they are not used to them, and use Celsius for human temperatures every day.

of course it doesn't matter. at least, not in a vacuum. but when interacting with the rest of the world, it does.