Tuesday, November 19, 2024
What the Fahrenheit?!
When winter looms, we start to pay more attention to the thermometer. The Fahrenheit thermometers in the U.S. are altogether confusing for folks in most of the rest of the world. Why does water freeze at 32°F instead of the more sensible 0°C? We usually just shrug and say it's always been that way, but that's not true. There's a real history behind the scale, even if don't know all of it. Veritasium brings us the story of Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, who made wildly popular thermometers in the 18th century, with animation by Marcello Ascani. (via Laughing Squid)
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7 comments:
Fahrenheit is how I feel. Celsius is how water feels. I don't care how water feels.
The rest of the world has an inalienable right to be wrong.
xoxoxoBruce
Kelvin is the only logical temp scale. Fahrenheit is the only practical temp scale.
Americans ! Always mucking things up; English spelling, measurement scales, spelling of measurement scales ... Trump.
Well you guys stick it out with fahrenheit and measuring things based on the length of a long dead BRITISH king's foot(or arm or some royal bit) You're keeping right in step with Liberia and Burma.
But we choose not to piss and moan about what you use.
xoxoxoBruce
I've heard that in India, they use Celsius, except for doctors, who use Fahrenheit when measuring a patient's temperature. They say that it is because the scale matches human health better (100°F is when a person starts to get sick).
(Although I bet it has much to do with legacy and not wanting to change and having an excuse).
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