# Anybody got a Celsius cricket? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 3, 2007, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-got-a-celsius-cricket/410433 "2007-07-03T23:23:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2007, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-got-a-celsius-cricket/410433/1 "2007-07-03T23:23:20Z")
A story on the news last night brought back to mind what I knew as a kid. If you count the number of cricket chirps in 14 seconds and add 38, it will be the exact Fahrenheit temperature. I never can remember the damn formula for converting F-to-C. So, for those enlightened countries that use the metric system, can some genetic scientist develop a Celsius cricket? Save a fortune on thermometers. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2007, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-got-a-celsius-cricket/410433/2 "2007-07-03T23:27:43Z")
Our cats hunt down and eat all crickets around here, so a Celsius cricket wouldn’t help. Maybe one that could post it on the Web, so the cats didn’t hear… ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2007, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-got-a-celsius-cricket/410433/3 "2007-07-04T00:34:59Z")
The formula’s simple enough, you just need to know that 0C = 32F, and 1 degree C = 1.8 degrees F precisely. so 10C = 32+18 = 50F 20C = 32+36 = 68F 30C = 32+54 = 86F and so on. working the other way, you just take off the 32, then divide by 1.8, i.e. multiply by 5/9. so 75F = 43 x 5/9 = 24C. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2007, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-got-a-celsius-cricket/410433/4 "2007-07-04T01:59:09Z")
The temperature in Fahrenheit is _C_ x 14 + 38, where is _C_ is the chirps per second. In Celsius, that’ll be (_C_ x 14 + 38 - 32) x 5/9 == _C_ x 8 + 3 (approximately). So, for the Celsius cricket, count the number of chirps in 8 seconds and add 3. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2007, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-got-a-celsius-cricket/410433/5 "2007-07-04T03:02:27Z")
Nothing to do with crickets but I surprised myself the other day when I took a dog’s temperature and discovered the thermometer was set to Celsius. Instead of sticking the thermometer up the dog’s butt again I just did the math, amazingly I remembered the formula without having to look it up.\* So you never know, maybe you could remember the formula if you tried. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2007, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-got-a-celsius-cricket/410433/6 "2007-07-04T14:58:15Z")
[QUOTE=Pleonast] The temperature in Fahrenheit is _C_ x 14 + 38, where is _C_ is the chirps per second. In Celsius, that’ll be (_C_ x 14 + 38 - 32) x 5/9 == _C_ x 8 + 3 (approximately). So, for the Celsius cricket, count the number of chirps in 8 seconds and add 3. [/QUOTE] Oh man, **Pleonast** , I never fail to be astonished at the depth and bredth of knowledge that Dopers posses (or for the scientific term, "smartness). Thanks