The Weather Channel

[CX]

PS - why you peeps still using Fahrenheit?

Because we want to know how cold it really is outside.

[Entilzha]

Kelvins are the only way to represent temperature

[CX]

In calculations it tends to be handy, but with Fahrenheit there is rarely any need for fractions of degrees.

[Asso]

[enterprikayak]

PS - why you peeps still using Fahrenheit?

Because we want to know how cold it really is outside.

I actually do know what you mean.

I use mostly metric, but saying I'm 170 cm tall means nothing to me. I only "know" height in inches and feet. Same with weight. Pounds mean more to me than kilos.

That's why I was glad my doctor has started weighing in kilos. I was able to ignore my weight through my whole pregnancy. Since I was puking and trying my best to eat I didn't need the added guilt of worrying whether I weighed too much or too little. 75 kilos? What's that?

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

PS - why you peeps still using Fahrenheit?

Because we want to know how cold it really is outside.

Bah! It's all just confusing. With Celsius (named after Swedish scientist Anders Celsius) it's very logical. Zero is when water freezes and 100 is when water boils. Whenever someone mentions something in F I have no idea if that's warm or cold.

[enterprikayak]

Yeah me neither (Unless they say 40 below).

And, seriously, I mean, boiling at 212? Freezing at 32?? What's that shiznit all about?

What did this Fahrenheit clown base his scale on anyhow? Numerology?

[CX]

I'd have to look it up, but I don't really care to be honest. Celsius is the way it is because it was designed around the phase transitions of water, which is all fine and good, but logic is a nonfactor when you already know that water freezes at 32° and boils at 212°, that average room temperature is 72°, and the average human body temperature is 98.6°. Aside from freezing and boiling, I couldn't tell you for sure what anything else is without having a calculator and the conversion factor to figure it out. I think average room temperature is around 23°C, but I don't know for sure. The metric system simply isn't practical for a lot of the ordinary, everyday things I do. In terms of weight, grams is too small, and kilograms are too big, while pounds are at a nice happy medium. The same goes for measuring height, as mm, cm, and even dm are too small to be practical, and meters are too big, but feet and inches work out pretty well for that. When it comes to driving distance, miles works very well, because kilometers are frankly too small IMO when it comes to that, especially when it comes to measuring speed and fuel efficiency. This of course completely ignores that the lay of the land literally reflects the imperial system of measurement, because land is divided into sections that are each one mile by one mile, with a road to mark the vast majority of the section lines. Liters are too small unless you're talking about something you might drink (gimmie a liter of cola), whereas gallons are much more practical for measuring larger volumes of water.

On the other hand, I prefer the metric system for scientific and engineering calculations, mainly because I have most of those constants memorized. While I know the acceleration due to gravity is 32.2 ft/sec in the Imperial system and 9.81 m/sec in SI, I don't know what the speed of light is in ft/sec, while I do know that it's 3.0x10^8 m/s in SI, R is 287 kJ/kg/K, etc. Gas turbines has made me memorize a few more of what is now apparently being referred to as the "United States Customary System", but I still prefer metric for that kind of stuff simply because I have more memorized for those types of calculations in SI.

Edit: All you never really wanted to know about the origin of the Fahrenheit scale

[Alelou]

Are the British still weighing themselves in 'stones'? I found that really bizarre.

[CX]

Never heard that particular term assigned to anything as a unit of measurement, aside from testicular fortitude that is.

[Aquarius]

Isn't a "stone" 14 lbs?

[Alelou]

Yeah, I think so. Something like that. Definitely not one of those numbers I find easy to multiply or divide in my head! (Okay, maybe I don't find ANY numbers easy to do that with, except for 10 or 1. Maybe 5 if my blood sugar is high enough...)

[Aquarius]

Heard that! I only even have a vague idea of what a "stone" is from watching reruns of AbFab!

[dark_rain]

Yep, we still do. It's the only thing that Imperial weights are really used for over here now. Occasionally fruit sellers and the like will sell by the lb, but it's pretty rare.

[Alelou]

Must still sell pints and half pints in the pub, though, surely?