this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2023
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Saturday’s temperature had triggered an excessive heat warning across Arizona as lows were expected to range between 80F and 86F

On Saturday afternoon, the National Weather Service announced that the temperature at Phoenix Sky Harbor international airport reached 110F, making it the 54th day this year with temperatures of at least 110F.

Saturday’s temperature breaks the previous record of 53 days that was set in 2020. From 1991 to 2020, the average consecutive days of 110F or above is 21 days, the NWS said.

An excessive heat warning has been issued for south central and south-west Arizona until 8pm on Sunday as weekend highs are expected to range between 108F and 114F. Meanwhile, lows are expected to range between 80F to 86F.

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[–] Buffalox 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (13 children)

Metric: 1 calorie heats 1 gram of water 1 C°, 1 gram is equal to 1cm³. Water boils at 100 C° and freezes at zero.

Imperial: 1 calorie heats 1 something by ?? F equal to ???, and 0F and 100F are completely irrelevant to everyday life and tasks.

[–] wavebeam 17 points 1 year ago (7 children)

I get your point, but disagree with your thesis. Fahrenheit makes a lot of sense for human comfort ranges. 0 and 100 are some of the most extreme natural temperatures most people in F-using countries ever see. 0 means cold as fuck and 100 means hot as fuck. And there’s a single-digit useful precision to it as well. 72 and 73 are close, but noticeably different. Celsius requires decimals for that kind of difference. And 0 means “it’s kinda cold outside, I guess” and 100 means “you were dead a long time ago”, so it’s not nearly as useful in every day life with natural living temperatures.

[–] AnUnusualRelic 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

So you're saying it's relevant for basically nothing but the weather. It's not a very good argument.

[–] rambaroo 11 points 1 year ago

To be fair, that's all it's used for. No one uses Fahrenheit for science in the US.

[–] seejur 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Is also incredibly subjective. What's comfortable for one person might not be for another. I'm pretty sure an Inuit and a Ghanan have pretty different ideas of what's cold or hot. Same for Floridan and Minnesotan speaking of the US

[–] rambaroo 5 points 1 year ago

0 and 100 are not comfortable for anyone.

[–] Saltblue 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I get your point "but because I was brought up with this system I'm going to make an argument as why it makes sense to me"

25 Celsius is a nice summer day

0 Celsius you better take a jacket and it's probably going to snow

43 Celsius damn hot

60-80 Celsius a very nice sauna

It's not that hard burgerman

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

burgerman

Hey, we didn't come up with the shit in the first place. The Imperial System is a British invention.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (5 children)

If it requires this much explanation, it's not very sensible.

In Celsius 0 is freezing and 100 is boiling. It's so simple. "Comfortable" is anywhere from like 15-30 (my Canadian standards, very subjective I know) and we don't need decimals.

[–] squirrelwithnut 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"Fairly cold"? I've been in 0c a few times in my life and every time it was freezing!

Isn't 100f the temperature your blood is meant to be?

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

98.6°F is body temperature. The .6 is funny because it's only there because someone picked a nice round number in °C then converted it. There's a name for that in math but I can't remember what it is... something about more precise than accurate...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's honestly really intuitive for weather if you grew up with it. We still use metric for science because it makes the most sense there, like you say.

[–] PBSkidz4Lyfe 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But it's not that simple. 100 boiling is only true at sea level. At 530 (~1750 feet) it's 98c. At 1500m (~5000ft) it's down to 95c. At 3000m (10k feet) it's just under 90c. Ocean water freezes at -2c. Fully saturated salt water freezes at -21c.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Fahrenheit doesn't have this issue?

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[–] Buffalox 9 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Any usefulness of Fahrenheit is purely accidental, how is water freezing at 32F useful? I'll grant that the finer resolution can be seen as a positive, I don't see how Fahrenheit is better for human comfort, my personal optimal comfort zone is 22-24C°, and I have no need for decimals for that. 73F is pretty close to 23C, I don't see much difference regarding comfort in either.

The huge problem with Fahrenheit, is that it is impractical in many situations, it has basically no merit to justify its existence, and only a minority of countries continue to use it.

Of course Americans can do whatever they want, but they are looking stupider for each year they keep using "Freedom Units".

Of course Americans switch to metric for mostly anything scientific, for example NASA use Metric.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (4 children)

0 means any water outside will most likely start freezing, 100 means any water outside will be boiling. Makes sense to me. What temp do things start freezing in F? 30? 40? Doesn't make sense at all. What temp does water boil? 160? I dunno, none of it is rational in any way.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

0/32/64/96 are somewhat reasonable breakpoints in F, and make dividing the space between them in half repeatedly on a thermometer simple. Fahrenheit was literally made up by Big Thermometer for this exact reason.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

"Somewhat reasonable"

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Lol, big thermometer.

[–] joel_feila 3 points 1 year ago

they are all arbitrary numbers. Originally C actually had water freeze at 0 and boil at -100

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Salt water freezes at 0F. Normal water at 32 F. Normal water boils at 212 F. Human body at 100 F (which is wrong, but also has been changing.) Below 10 F snot in nose freezes. 20 F is time to switch to long pants.

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

Water freezes at an obvious 32°F at sea level and of course boils at 212°F. What's so confusing about that? /s

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago
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[–] joel_feila 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

but how often does knowing how to convert water weight to volume come up? Same with the energy to heat water.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

The water/weight comes up all the time. Filling a 10L bucket, I know that is going to weigh 10kg. I know I can lift it and my kid can't.

The energy one, I'm not even sure is right. We don't use calories, we use kilojoules. A joule is used to lift 1kg 1m. It's not something I ever use. I use kilojoules for tracking food I ate today, that's about it.

[–] joel_feila 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah i dont really use energy unless i want explain kwh to gallons of gasoline.

But fir water buckets i just see the bycket and have enough experience to know if i can

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Lifting 1 kg by 1 m would take 9.8 joules.

[–] Buffalox 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Weight to volume is extremely common when I cook, because often things are measured in volume, but I prefer to use the weight.

½ a liter water or milk or almost any fluid without extra dish-washing? Easy you just put it on the weight, select tara, and pour 500 grams. Voila you just saved both kitchen space and extra work. because 1g = 1ml with water and most fluids.

It's equally easy if the number given isn't in liter, ml or milliliter of course converts directly to grams, and dl or deciliter = 100 g. 1 liter of course being 1000 ml and in water 1000 g or 1 kg. It's consistent all the way through.

I guess if you are used to Freedom units, this may sound like science fiction, but this has been reality in many countries for a long time already.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

One pint of water or milk without extra dish-washing? Easy you just put it on the scale and pour one pound.

[–] Buffalox 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

OK Imperial is not something I'm used to use, but according to Wikipedia, a pint is 569.6 ml and a pound is 0.4535 kg.

So you'd be off by 116,1 g or a whopping 25%!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_units

That would ruin many great recipes.

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

The American pint is 473 mL.

The Imperial pint used to be that much too, hence the old saying "A pint is a pound the world around". Then the Imperial pint was increased by 25%, but Americans kept the old amount.

[–] Buffalox 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How should I know which you use, AFAIK freedom units are American.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You don't need to know anything about American units. But rest assured that those who do use them still haven't found a good reason to switch to French units.

[–] joel_feila 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That would make more dishes. If i need flour water and milk i just use the same cup. And i have scale to wash off.

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

Their phrasing isn't perfect, but I believe they're saying,

  1. Put the whole mixing bowl or pot or whatever you're preparing in,.
  2. Press the zero out button
  3. Add your 500g of ingredient
  4. If you have more things to add, press the zero button again and repeat.

No measuring cups needed at all.

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[–] BackOnMyBS 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I'm a fan of the metric system, but understand that Fahrenheit is pretty convenient for regular human temperatures. For one, the vast majority of climate temperatures that we experience in the US on a regular basis land between 0°F & 100°F except for deserts & recent climate change impacts. For another, Farenheit is a bit more precise as whole numbers since differences between degrees are smaller, so I can be more precise with my a/c thermostat.

Still, I would prefer that we change to metric across the board in the US because it is more congruent across dimensions and decimals are easier to manipulate than fractions for me. For the latter, if I had a recipe that required I calculate 1/3 cup plus 1/2 cup, I have to switch to 2/6 & 3/6, which equals 5/6, then I'm stuck estimating that anyway since most measuring cups aren't labeled to the 6th precision. It gets even more confusing when we have to consider teaspoons, tablespoons, & pints. Using liters would be so much more convenient for me. Another area where I get confused is when measurements for food are presented as ounces versus fluid ounces. I understand the difference, but it's still something I have to think extra about.

My one request in switching over to metric would be that weather and thermostat temperatures are presented at least to the .5°C precision level so that 75°F would be 24.0°C and 74°F would be 23.5°C. Yes, I'm this picky about my thermostat settings and can notice a difference between 75°F/24.0°C and 74°F/23.5°C.

[–] RunawayFixer 1 points 1 year ago

Request granted! My European thermostat that is about 30 years old now, has a display accuracy of 0.5 degrees, so I'd expect more modern systems to be at least as accurate. I'm not going to speak of the actual accuracy, but the display at least is 0.5 🙂

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