LogFAQs > #986301795

orcus_snake posted...

This is sensible enough and we can work with it.

The difference in F is more subtle than C, sure.
My take is: does that even matter, if its i dunno 58 outside, maybe it is too warm, no idea honestly but lets just assume its warm, if you are out and about can you really tell when the temperature goes up or down 2 or 3 degrees? how much does it vary on a warm day from morning to noon and then to sunset? is that something that can be genuinely intuited?

Because if not, then I cannot see any argument on how F would allow for greater precision in practice because people cant really tell differences of individual degrees just like its useless to have decimals in C which is possible but not really practical or needed.

I dont walk around outside with a thermometer. But on a heat pump / central AC you can absolutely tell.

72 F set to the AC unit in your house is comfortable. 74 F set to the AC unit in your house can be tolerated if you have to put up with it thanks to a cold blooded person living with you. 75 F set to the AC unit in your house is very uncomfortable.

The Celsius equivalents in that range are:
72 F - 22.22222 C
73 F - 22.77778 C
74 F - 23.33333 C
75 F - 23.88889 C

One of these is very intuitive, one of these isnt, and its obvious which is which.

Celsius simply has too narrow a range for ambient temperature and you have to subdivide degrees to have any level of precision at all. When the range of livable ambient temperatures is a little over a third of a temperature scale, that scale isnt suited to measuring ambient temperature. Yes, Over half of Farenheit isnt useful for that, but it was created to measure ambient temperatures, then extended later.

Obviously Kelvin (and to a lesser extent Celsius) are more useful for scientific applications.