The Origin of the American Temperature system, Fahrenheit

[Aeroil]

you silly Americans, why do you keep THIS temperature system?? *points to link*
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a891215.html

 

[caela]

Ummmmmm, because it drives everyone else crazy??

 

[graceanne]

Cause the amount of money it would take to change our system would be astronomical?

 

[Aeroil]

lol, it's a joke, read the link grace.

 

[graceanne]

lol, it's a joke, read the link grace.

You want me to READ? ARE YOU MAD? lol

 

[Aeroil]

You want me to READ? ARE YOU MAD? lol

lol, well maybe I have a wierd sense of humour, but I though it was really funny when I read it in physics today....

 

[Xelebes]

The unfathomable reason why the numbers were bounced from 30/90 to 32/96 would be because of the fact that 32 is a power of 2 as opposed to 30 which is not a power of anything, nor the product, sum or difference of two powers. Also, the notion of the Babylonian system of 60 was dropped when they found no use for it as 60 really meant nothing with the main markers kept at 30 and 90.

That would be my guess.

 

[Miss Diva]

The unfathomable reason why the numbers were bounced from 30/90 to 32/96 would be because of the fact that 32 is a power of 2 as opposed to 30 which is not a power of anything, nor the product, sum or difference of two powers. Also, the notion of the Babylonian system of 60 was dropped when they found no use for it as 60 really meant nothing with the main markers kept at 30 and 90.

That would be my guess.

Uh could you repeat that again but this time in english...?

 

[Xelebes]

It's just mathematical elegance, that is all.

 

[Aeroil]

hmm, it seems that nobody else finds that funny but me....
ah well.

 

[Xelebes]

hmm, it seems that nobody else finds that funny but me....
ah well.

Dry humour is one of your talents.

 

[laurel-marie]

hmm, it seems that nobody else finds that funny but me....
ah well.

Not true.
But I find it humorous because I just had my son do a quick study on the two scales and what temp they each share.
Thanks for the chuckle.

 

[Killishandra]

As a science major...

you silly Americans, why do you keep THIS temperature system?? *points to link*
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a891215.html

...I just can't wait to fascinate my fellow students with that interesting bit of trivia at the end. I never knew I could be geeky AND the life of the party all at once! All these long years of social torture in college and I could have had the best of both worlds.

 

[Sir_Winston54]

Wellllll... the story we got when I was in junior high science was that when Herr Doktor Fahrenheit was developing his thermometer, he set 0 as the point the mercury reached on what he thought was a day (or night <shrug>) that was as cold as it could get, and originally set "normal" human body temperature at 100 {Could he have been measuring rectally? Oral temps were not the standard until the early 20th century if I remember correctly... perhaps one of our members in the noble profession of nursing can confirm or correct?}. When the scale was divided into 100ths from those two standards, the freezing temp of water came in at 32, and the boiling point at 212.

Note: Since my junior high days were much nearer to Herr Doktor Fahrenheit's times than yours are/were, odds are the story was less distorted then than it has become in all the many years since - dontcha think?

 

[Aeroil]

Wellllll... the story we got when I was in junior high science was that when Herr Doktor Fahrenheit was developing his thermometer, he set 0 as the point the mercury reached on what he thought was a day (or night <shrug>) that was as cold as it could get, and originally set "normal" human body temperature at 100 {Could he have been measuring rectally? Oral temps were not the standard until the early 20th century if I remember correctly... perhaps one of our members in the noble profession of nursing can confirm or correct?}. When the scale was divided into 100ths from those two standards, the freezing temp of water came in at 32, and the boiling point at 212.

Note: Since my junior high days were much nearer to Herr Doktor Fahrenheit's times than yours are/were, odds are the story was less distorted then than it has become in all the many years since - dontcha think?

lol, Winston, how old are you that the story could have been distorted that much????
'sides, newer records tend to be more accurate than older, if i'm not mistaken

 

[Marquis]

Graceanne is right about the reason we don't switch to a different scale.

I often wonder how much it actually costs us to have such an inefficient scale though. American standards of measurement are so retarded.

 

[Sir_Winston54]

lol, Winston, how old are you that the story could have been distorted that much????
'sides, newer records tend to be more accurate than older, if i'm not mistaken

If I remember correctly, that was 7th grade science, so it would have been the school year 60-61.

And yes, newer records would tend to be more accurate than older ones - but how would one create (and then recount) new records of something that happened in the late 17th or early 18th century? Seems to me that the narrative of an occurrence that happened that long ago would tend to become more distorted with time...

Edited to note: 1960-61, not 1860-61 - just to forestall certain smartasses with repetitive initials.

 

[Aeroil]

If I remember correctly, that was 7th grade science, so it would have been the school year 60-61.

And yes, newer records would tend to be more accurate than older ones - but how would one create (and then recount) new records of something that happened in the late 17th or early 18th century? Seems to me that the narrative of an occurrence that happened that long ago would tend to become more distorted with time...

Edited to note: 1960-61, not 1860-61 - just to forestall certain smartasses with repetitive initials.

More recently, Winston, we have actual historians who compile data, validate/disprove sources, etc. so it is because of organizational reasons that I say we have better sources now.
And damn! I was gonna zing you on that one myself

 

[Aeroil]

Graceanne is right about the reason we don't switch to a different scale.

I often wonder how much it actually costs us to have such an inefficient scale though. American standards of measurement are so retarded.

Lol, yeah, imperial is a pretty retarded system to use when we have something like metric avaliable.
Now, if only we could implement metric time........

 

[Marquis]

Lol, yeah, imperial is a pretty retarded system to use when we have something like metric avaliable.
Now, if only we could implement metric time........

and use radians instead of degrees.

 

[Xelebes]

Lol, yeah, imperial is a pretty retarded system to use when we have something like metric avaliable.
Now, if only we could implement metric time........

The imperial system is pretty much stuck in the construction industry as it is much easier for engineers to design their structures with notions of halves, thirds and quarters pretty much handy. I used to work at a window factory which was German-owned and so everything was done in metric - that can be a bit problematic. Especially when everything is done in millimetres. This usually called for an interesting shorthand that must be used - calling a metre "ten hundred". It also calls for using units that you would never think of using in a scientific setting like the decimetre (hundred).

 

[Aeroil]

The imperial system is pretty much stuck in the construction industry as it is much easier for engineers to design their structures with notions of halves, thirds and quarters pretty much handy. I used to work at a window factory which was German-owned and so everything was done in metric - that can be a bit problematic. Especially when everything is done in millimetres. This usually called for an interesting shorthand that must be used - calling a metre "ten hundred". It also calls for using units that you would never think of using in a scientific setting like the decimetre (hundred).

a decimeter is a tenth of a meter, actually, a decameter is ten, a hectameter is one hundred, and centimeter is one hundreth. I have a chart somewhere here that goes to the sextillionith and sextillion, which are the prefixes zocto and zetta

 

[arctic-stranger]

...I just can't wait to fascinate my fellow students with that interesting bit of trivia at the end. I never knew I could be geeky AND the life of the party all at once! All these long years of social torture in college and I could have had the best of both worlds.

That was the only part of the article i already knew.

Another interesting trivia fact: At -40 (key of c or key of f) you can throw a cup of boiling coffee out over the snow, and it will all evaporate before it hits the ground.

 

[Aeroil]

That was the only part of the article i already knew.

Another interesting trivia fact: At -40 (key of c or key of f) you can throw a cup of boiling coffee out over the snow, and it will all evaporate before it hits the ground.

Why do I get the feeling that you know this first-hand AS?

 

[arctic-stranger]

Why do I get the feeling that you know this first-hand AS?

its one of the few things that makes -40 fun...well, that and wood splits REALLY easily.