this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2024
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Science Memes

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temperature (mander.xyz)
submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 26 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Both are equally arbitrary. You just have to know a handful of temperatures that you use in your day to day life either way.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Celsius being based on water makes it the most intuitive of the three imo.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Hum... Around here water boils at ~96°C (some labs measure that). And it seems to not freeze at 0°C anywhere on Earth, as it's never pure water, with never an homogeneous freezing point.

It is repeatable, it's not very arbitrary, but "intuitive" doesn't apply in any way.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 8 months ago

You must be at altitude. That definitely makes a difference for the boiling point, but of course water freezes at 0. Impurities that you'll encounter in tap water, for example, will not have a large effect on freezing point.

Even if it was different by a few degrees, how does that make the scale any less intuitive?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago

Differences are neglegtable. 96°C is still going to kill you.