this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2023
277 points (99.3% liked)

Memes

45731 readers
984 users here now

Rules:

  1. Be civil and nice.
  2. Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What additional arguments besides personal experience would you give to back this precision claim?

Temperature scales are arbitrary by nature, and the criteria behind their definition can be useful or not. Fahrenheit's isn't that much useful compared to Celsius' or Kelvin's.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm not arguing on Fahrenheit's behalf or saying it IS more precise. I just said it "feels" more precise because you have finer increments in whole numbers. 70 degrees F is about 21 degrees C while 90 degrees F is about 32 degrees. 20 degrees of increment in F versus 12 in C which feels more precise. It's the same way metric length measurements feel more precise because there are whole number millimeters rather than fractional inches.

I have no strong opinion any one way, other than I feel like everyone should endeavor to be comfortable converting between various systems of measurement.

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

You can simply use as many decimals you want to make Celsius more precise. You don't see it used in general because it really isn't needed.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

The little digital thermometers I have around the house read to one decimal place. The precision argument is just bizarre.