

Celsius may be better for chemistry. Fahrenheit is better for real life - bbali
http://isomorphism.es/post/3767526267/fahrenheit-versus-celsius

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stephengillie
Basically, the argument boils down to 2 points:

1\. Fahrenheit is more granular, by design

2\. Americans are used to Fahrenheit and learning new things is not
cognitively free.

Fahrenheit, as a scale, was created in a similar fashion to Celsius. But then
the Fahrenheit scale was multiplied by 4. Like Celsius, Fahrenheit starts at
freezing and boiling points - of brine (salt water), not pure water. This
gives a lower freezing point (and boiling point?). Then that output was
multiplied by 4, giving us the scale we have today.

My preferred solution is a compromise -- create a new temperature scale that
is just Celsius multiplied by 4. On this scale:

    
    
      * Water freezes at 0 degrees
      * A nice room temperature is 80 degrees
      * Water boils at 400 degrees
      * Your oven dial would run from 260 degrees to 1040 degrees.

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amyjess
Well, the main argument I saw in the OP, which I've been advocating among
friends for a while, is that in Fahrenheit, 0-100° is the difference between a
cold day and a hot day, which makes it more ideal for "what's the weather like
today?".

With Celsius, on the other hand, you're not going above 40°, and thus so much
of that 0-100° space is useless for real life.

~~~
stephengillie
And how would you feel about the new scale I proposed? It gives you the scale
you want and it's easier to convert to scientific scales like Celsius and
Kelvin.

