Fahrenheit or Celsius... which do you use?

FrostedNipple · 23 Apr 2009 at 15:51

Fahrenheit to me, means nothing. If you were to say 80F, i wouldn't really know what that is. Celsius though is the scale related to water. Boils at 100, freezes at 0. Although i do know that in F and C -40 is the same, and i know that 40F is 0C and a 100F day is aparently good weather. Other than that though, no clue.

Other old units are useful to me, for example a Pint, gallon to me just means about 4 litres, inches are very useful for engineering. The old money system means nothing to me though.

LukeTW · 23 Apr 2009 at 15:53

Celcius

jak731 · 23 Apr 2009 at 16:11

In short, 100 means nothing at all on the Fahrenheit scale, 96 used to mean something but doesn't anymore, and 0 is colder than it ever gets in Denmark. Brilliant.

lol

I use kelvin for work, celsius for everything else.

OpenToSuggestions · 23 Apr 2009 at 16:17

Fahrenheit is what old people use......in the similar way your grandad tells you a length in feet and inches and I think wtf

.

Generally I use Celcius but in all thermodynamic and fluid exam questions I use Kelvin.

strumpusplunket · 23 Apr 2009 at 16:42

zootfloot said:
My wife does this too...your both bloody wierd.

I know, I know. It's bizarre.

I have the same issue with weights (small weights = grams; large weights = stones/pounds) and lengths (small lengths = inches; medium lengths = metres; long distances = miles)

What can I say; I grew up during a time when one system was waning and the other waxing. It's just how my brain works and I'm stuck this way!

aslco · 23 Apr 2009 at 16:59

I can only ever really understand feet because i just iamgine a 6ft tall person then use that to work out the height they are talking.

I use metric for everythin. Kelvin sometimes for college work but fahrenheit i totally dont get

jondale · 12 Jun 2009 at 19:01

FrostedNipple said:
Fahrenheit to me, means nothing. If you were to say 80F, i wouldn't really know what that is. Celsius though is the scale related to water. Boils at 100, freezes at 0. Although i do know that in F and C -40 is the same, and i know that 40F is 0C and a 100F day is aparently good weather. Other than that though, no clue.

Other old units are useful to me, for example a Pint, gallon to me just means about 4 litres, inches are very useful for engineering. The old money system means nothing to me though.

RE: "and i know that 40F is 0C and a 100F day is aparently good weather".

Not really. 40F is more like 4.5C. 0C is 32F. And 100F is uncomfortaby hot weather - nearly 38C.

Some people (e.g. all residents of the USA and most residents of the UK aged 50 and over) understand/recognise Fahrenheit temperatures because that's what they've used since childhood and (in the case of the USA) because that's how temperature information, such as in weather reports and cookery books, is provided to them every day. They don't have the same intuitive/instant understanding of Celsius numbers, which are useless to many of them unless there is a conversion table handy. In Canada, the standard is Celsius, but differing needs are recognised so that, for example, TV weather maps show temperatures both ways (38C/100F, 0C/32F, etc) so that the whole population can enjoy the same 'instant recognition' factor.

rypt · 12 Jun 2009 at 19:09

Dutch Guy said:
Celcius, Fahrenheit is for Americans together with gallons, inches, yards, 9/16th on wrenches etc.

vonhelmet said:
Celsius. Fahrenheit is utterly retarded - it's based on stupid things and even the guy who invented it got it wrong.

Gotta love it how Americans change the English language to "simply it"; but then still use a complicated and useless Imperial system.

oli collett said:
Celsius. Fahrenheit is a useless scale.
I'd be quite happy to see the whole country metricated just to wind up all those mail readers who whinge about EU this and that

I agree, it's about time we stopped this Imperial system nonsense.

Celsius, metres, grams and so on makes much more sense.
Should change road signs to Km/h finally.

BTW, can someone explain something to me?
Why do we buy fuel in Litres but have efficiency in MPG?

Glaucus · 12 Jun 2009 at 19:16

Celsius I have no idea what Fahrenheit is (in terms of temp).

Greenlizard0 · 12 Jun 2009 at 19:24

AcidHell2 said:
Celsius I have no idea what Fahrenheit is (in terms of temp).

Snap.

Same with mph and kph.

Great first post - resurrect a dead thread?

vertica · 12 Jun 2009 at 19:24

eXor said:
0 for freezing, 100 for boiling.

This depends on the ambient pressure, so is not true

AcidHell2 said:
Celsius I have no idea what Fahrenheit is (in terms of temp).

F = C x(9/5) +32 (roughly anyhow)

so -40*F=-40*C, 32*F = 0*C, and 212F = 100*C

And for me, weather and food in *C, everything else in kelvin.

EDIT:

Greenlizard0 said:
Great first post - resurrect a dead thread?

lol didn't spot he'd done that!

dangerstat · 12 Jun 2009 at 19:26

XeNoN89 said:
Celsius when its cold, fahrenheit when its hot, have no idea why.

Same here

Glaucus · 12 Jun 2009 at 19:26

Greenlizard0 said:
Snap.

Same with mph and kph.

yep also no idea about KMH.

However I can interchange between inch, feet,yards and mm, cm, meters.

rypt · 12 Jun 2009 at 19:26

MPH and KMH is easy, you just need to remember 5miles = 8km

Sankari · 12 Jun 2009 at 19:31

Good grief, Celsius of course!

Metric for everything, in fact.

Glaucus · 12 Jun 2009 at 19:32

rypt said:
MPH and KMH is easy, you just need to remember 5miles = 8km

Might be easy to convert like many units. but can you judge it in it's own right.

Lightnix · 12 Jun 2009 at 19:33

Yes, Celsius. Fahrenheit is an utterly ridiculous scale. It doesn't even seem to be relative to anything and is just confusing and hard to spell.

muon · 12 Jun 2009 at 19:35

celsius.

As other have said, I have no sense of what the fahrenheit scale means other than 100F being a very hot summers day and 32F being freezing point of water.

I can always convert between the 2, but again that is effort.

rypt · 12 Jun 2009 at 19:35

AcidHell2 said:
Might be easy to convert like many units. but can you judge it in it's own right.

I do not judge MPH period ... when I drive I drive to the "this feels like a safe speed to be doing on this road", I do not go "this feels like 35.6784251513mph, I can go quicker as the speedlimit is 40mph".

I wouldn't matter to me if the sign said 30MPH or 50KMH I would still drive exactly the same

danza · 12 Jun 2009 at 19:43

I keep my tarantulas at 80-85F and know that's the right temp for them, but use Celsius for all other situations (oven, weather etc). Not sure why though!