Was wondering how long it would take.
I’m not going to claim to be the only person to have invented them, but I invented them. I hate doing the math for 5/13/2013 @ 12:25:17 AM minus 7/12/2012 @ 6:03:41 PM, or whatever. I even hate looking at those representations of time.
And it’s a very natural way of doing so. A spread of 1 foot at a range of 1000 feet is one milliradian. Or 1 cm at 1000 cm, or 1 anything at 1000 anything.
As for spices, who even measures them at all? Most recipes will just list the spices as “a pinch” or the like, or “to taste”. I mean, I suppose commercial kitchens probably measure their spices, but they’re cooking much larger batches, too, and if a standard scale still isn’t fine enough for their batch size, they’ll get a finer scale.
@AHunter3 , let me introduce you to how astronomers measure time, the Julian day.
As @thelurkinghorror said, France, after the revolution, used metric time with deci-jour and centi-jour. Now it isn’t used, but you could probably find a pocket-watch from that time.
Bumping the thread again because of one very specific case where metric is obviously and clearly superior yet not used sometimes
Our office just got some electric water kettles, which is great for tea drinkers or just for hot water in general. It even has a digital temperature readout.
The problem: there’s a button that switches the measurement from Fahrenheit to Celsius. I cannot for the live of me understand why there are people who regularly set it to Fahrenheit.
For outdoor weather, I get it - there’s not a huge benefit either way for most human activities and people will use what they’re used to.
But boiling water? Come on. 100 = boiling is literally the way the Celsius scale was defined. Much easier than remembering 212, especially in a pre-caffeinated haze in the morning. And this is an office crammed full of scientists
Only true at sea level. If you live in Denver, water boils at about 94 C, which isn’t any easier to remember than 201 F.
Too bad we’re in Houston, then. All of 100 ft (at the office, give or take) above sea level. Near enough as to make no practical difference.
And, yes, it is still easier to remember “oh, it’s not quite 100 here” than “random number somewhere around 200”
Just think of it as a percentage (which is not far from the reality of it) and let it go. Especially since I don’t usually want a full boil but do want somewhere in the range of 90
That’s very far from the reality of it. Why is a percentage of the way from freezing to boiling relevant?
That seems to weaken the argument. Presuming people have already figured out their preference, whether 91 C or 198 F or whatever, there’s no reason for them to switch scales and have to remember a new number when the machine supports both.
I mean, seriously? The first argument was Denver, which is relevant to the small portion of the human race who live at altitudes high enough to matter.
The other is basically a non-sequitur. I’m much more comfortable with temperature in Fahrenheit from a lifetime of use but Celsius for boiling water is just an absolute no-brainer. I’d be lost trying to bake with an oven with temperatures set in Celsius but I can shut off my brain and still know “100 = good” for water
As for percentage being relevant, well, yes 100% of the way to boiling is exactly what I want to know in this specific case. That’s rather the point - people fight metric even in the cases where it actually is clearly easier/more intuitive to use.
I’m using your example. If I’m a tea drinker and I’ve found that 180 F is the best for my favorite tea, and I’ve been using that number for years, why would I want to have to remember 82 C instead? It’s not like it’s more of a round number in C, and it’s totally irrelevant that it’s 82% of the way from freezing to boiling, assuming I’m even at sea level. All I care about is that the number on the display is the same as the one I remember to be the best.
And if I just want boiling, I don’t really care at all. Just heat it until it bubbles.
The problem could be easily solved if the readout were in both systems. If it can do both, why not display both? That would help to normalize Celsius.
I keep my iphone weather app in Fahrenheit, but frequently switch it back and forth. I really don’t understand why I can’t set it to have both at once.
Denver is a well-known example with a well-known nickname. It’s not like the boiling temperature is only different there, and not relevant to a “small portion” of us. You can find more extreme examples even a relatively short drive from the ocean.
So you’re claiming a significant portion of the US lives at altitudes sufficient to make the argument legitimate?
That’s one take, certainly, but not supported by the numbers. The portion of the world’s population that lives under 2000ft elevation (with 3-4 deg F or within 2 C difference) is well over 80% and over a third live under 500ft where there is no meaningful difference.
But again, not truly relevant. Are you claiming that for boiling water, seeing “100” or even “94” or “98”, i.e. somewhere near 100, is less intuitively obvious than whatever random number it happens to be in another system? Even in Kelvin, it is not as intuitive - 373 is just some random number. It’s only in Celsius where this is the case. So, not even an argument for SI units in general but for Celsius in this one particular case.
Yes, I get the argument by familiarity but that’s not saying it’s actually objectively better but that it’s easier/more familiar - it’s an ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ argument.
So, sure, if the argument is that familiarity trumps all, even in cases (like this very specific one) where there actually is a system that was literally designed for that specific use case, I can accept that. But to deny that it is objectively more intuitive in this specific case approaches delusion.
Recall, this isn’t about weather. It’s about the specific case of boiling water. And even here, where there is a system designed for the specific purpose, there is significant push back.
I’m struggling to understand why it should be easier for me to set my electric kettle to 93C than to 200F, which is where i generally set it.
It wouldn’t. My specific case was boiling water. There’s a lot of weaving and dodging around that, though.
My US - marketed teas all come labeled with a recommended temperature in Fahrenheit. You want me to do the math just to brew tea? I actually know Celsius from 0-40. I know what it feels like, and what those temperatures mean. I have no clue what temps in the 80s and 90s mean, though.
I’m not weaving or dodging. I own an electric kettle. Right now, it is set to 200F, and I’ve just explained why that’s easier for me than using it in Celsius.
Likewise temperatures in Fahrenheit. I roughly have an idea of what 350F does. A lot of baking goes on around there.
200F? No clue what that really means, other than getting close to boiling.
But I do know seeing a gauge approaching 100 is easy to read and remember.
Again, for the specific case of boiling.
Forget the tea part of it, if that makes it easier. In an enclosed vessel (these kettles at work actually happen not to be made of glass or clear plastic).
There’s a fair amount of fighting the hypothetical (altitude, tea temperature preference, whatever) for a very limited and specific case.
I think several of us have answered the first question you asked, “why are my colleagues setting the kettle to Fahrenheit?” If you want to ask a second question, why would you use Fahrenheit to boil water, i dunno. When i want to boil water i don’t use a thermometer at all, i just wait until i hear bubbles.
I must have ordered some “metric” tea (from “Palais des Thés”), because it never, ever says 93C. It says 200F/95C (or 170°F / 75°C or whatever, depending on the variety of tea), and often/usually omits any mention of F
When the water is boiling, it’s got tons of steam coming out the spout, yes? And it makes boiling noises? It’s literally the only point at which you don’t need to see a temperature display.
Every other point it’s some non-round number that fits your particular use case, if you actually know what that number is, it doesn’t matter if it’s 180 or 85, they’re both equally useful.