septimus, have you and your wife ever tried a blinded experiment? Because I’ll bet that she would have gone from “colder, please” to “warmer” without you even changing the thermostat at all. Besides which, most household thermostats cycle with a larger amplitude than 1 degree (on either scale), anyway, so if a person’s comfort zone really were that narrow, they’d be out of luck no matter what units you use.
I was in a goofy debate with a group of cohorts that the US should finally make the switch to metric.
All except Celsius. Keep that for the lab. Fahrenheit is just too damn convenient on a human level.
Only because you’re used to it, Fahrenheit is extremely inconvenient to me because it doesn’t tell me anything unless I convert it to Celsius first.
I’m used to both (having lived in the UK and US) and I cannot think of any objective or subjective measure where Celsius isn’t equal or better.
Well sure, since it was an argument concerning the US.
Point was, there’s something to be said about a temperature scale whose 0 – 100° range relates to typical temperate climate ranges and relative correlation with the human body. That makes it more practical when I think of outdoor/external temperatures and the extremes of comfort at both ends (room temperature/nice day being ~3/4 of the way up).
But yes, it’s all pretty much arbitrary.
I’d like to add one of the cohorts in the debate was British. All he could do was laugh and laugh. 
Unlike you, I’m far from impartial (having grown up with Celsius in Canada all my life), but for what it’s worth, I’m inclined to agree.
My mother and grandmother, on the other hand, grew up with Fahrenheit (also in Canada, mind you), which makes temperature talk between us a bit difficult.
Plus, the temperature at which water freezes is certainly something relevant to human experience. If the temperature is a little above 0 F, or a little below it, makes very little difference to me… But if it’s a little above or below 0 C, that makes a huge difference. It makes sense to put such a significant temperature at the zero point.
You need less fancy people than the explainers so far, so let me step in as a mathematical idiot.
It’s because the Celsius degree increment covers a wider range of temperature change than does the Fahrenheit degree.
Each Celsius degree is about 1.8 Fahrenheit degrees.
Imagine two thermometer scales, C and F, next to each other.
If the individual increments of the C scale are larger, and we have a “0” line anywhere near the middle of the range we’re measuring, then both above and below that 0 line a given number of increments on the C scale is farther away from the 0 line than the same number of increments on the F scale. Start with 32F and notice that 0C is right next to it. The F scale at 40 below is 72 increments different from 0. Because the C scale uses larger increments, it’s only changed 40 increments. Thus the magic point the scales meet is 40 below; with a different delta of relative degree size difference, that meeting point would be somewhere different, but as long as the degree sizes are not identical, two measuring systems where the 0 point is reasonably near freezing and increments are reasonably small would meet somewhere…
Put another way:
We could also measure temperature by giving the difference between the Celsius and Fahrenheit measurements; call this the Indistinguishable scale, if you like. Thus, on the Indistinguishable scale, the freezing point of water would be 32 - 0 = 32 degrees, the boiling point of water would be 212 - 100 = 112 degrees, normal body temperature would be around 60 degrees, and so on.
By considering that the Indistinguishable scale, like any other, will have a temperature indicated by “0 degrees”, we see that there must be a temperature at which the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales agree. (Above that, the Indistinguishable scale will be positive, indicating that the Fahrenheit measure will be above the Celsius measure; below that, the Indistinguishable scale will be negative, indicating that the Fehrenheit measure will be below the Celsius measure.)
Definitely:
minus = ice
plus = thaw
I just can’t imagine how this very obvious mental image works in Fahrenheit where you have to deal with “less than 32 degrees” and “more than 32 degrees” instead.
Instead of 0°, it’s 32°.
We get by. Somehow.
Here’s my mental image growing up with F°…
0°F = Going outside invites the cruel hand of an agonizingly slow death.
15°F = Bitter cold. Wear a parka.
30°F = It’s probably gonna snow. (~water freezes)
45°F = Wear a jacket, and zip up. Umbrella for cold rain is a good idea.
60°F = Tshirt and pants. Smells like spring, bring a hoodie!
75°F = Ahhh, perfect day. (~room temperature)
90°F = plan a day at the beach and crank the AC.
100°F = You’ll wish it was 0°F. Or dead. AC or not. (~body temperature).
Did you even have the last four available in Detroit? Or were those purely theoretical?
Ha.
Oh, believe you me, July — August were 2 months of hell.
Detroit gets more or less the same climate as Chicago and NYC. So yeh, we got the whole range, but biased more toward the bottom half.
But Michigan has the most coastline. Beaches and sand usually go hand in hand with the heat.