Oh, America. You do so by confusing the whole world, with your “pounds per square inch” and “cups”, instead of sensible measurements like Pascals and liters. And part and parcel of that is your denial of stubbornness to drop Fahrenheit in favor of Celsius.
Of course we agree that Fahrenheit has some merits. But are they really enough to justify its use in the 21st century? Let’s see.
The Fahrenheit case
We’ll say it: Fahrenheit gets a bad rap. Perhaps because of its incredible melting and boiling values - 32 and 212, against the ideal scale of Celsius 0 and 100; maybe because it’s so connected to the USA versus the… 1,000 year old man or so, saying “eh, this is about the size of a barleycorn, maybe.”
But in fact, there are many advantages to using the Fahrenheit scale – and it’s not just less scientific because of the lack of a decimal base. Indeed, “any measure, including Fahrenheit or Celsius or even Réaumur, can easily be associated with the metric system,” wrote Eric Pinder, the author of the book. Binding the Wind: The World’s Worst Weather Conditions.
“The Celsius scale is not ‘metric’ in the same way that, say, centimeters and kilometers are,” Pinder pointed out. “If Gabriel Fahrenheit had lived in France and Anders Celsius in Britain, it might have been the Fahrenheit scale ‘attached’ to the metric system rather than the opposite.”
If anything, the Fahrenheit scale may be more accurate than Celsius – or at least, more so correct. Because there are nine degrees Fahrenheit for every five degrees Celsius, the scale “has more degrees than the range of temperatures common to most people,” said Jay Hendricks, a researcher at the Institute. of the Society for Standardization and Technology’s Fundamental Thermodynamics Group, told HowStuffWorks. .
“This means that there is a difference in the temperature of the ‘sweet grains’ between 70 and 71 degrees F than between 21 and 22 degrees Celsius,” he explained. “Since one can detect a difference of 1 F degree, this degree is more accurate for human experience.”
In fact, it is this aspect of the “personal experience” that many people who have used the Fahrenheit scale will point to as its biggest selling point. Although it has its origins in the science of astronomy and meteorology, Fahrenheit has proven to be reasonable for human use: “When we talk about temperature, we usually talk about the level of comfort,” Pinder pointed out. . Overall, ‘The temperature will rise to triple digits today!’ meaning that the outside air will be warmer than your internal body temperature.”
In other words, “it is the time when your body becomes a center of heat instead of being a source of heat,” he explained. As far as comfort is concerned, that is very important and not optional at all.
Celsius temperature
In the opposition camp, we have Fahrenheit’s younger, prettier, and more popular cousin, Celsius – at least, if its advocates are to be believed.
First proposed 18 years after Fahrenheit first proposed his temperature scale, Anders Celsius’ first plan was to have zero represent the boiling point of sea water, and 100 for space. of ice – but, as that is not reasonable, it was quickly changed. by other scientists.
However, the design from the beginning was for a scale of 100 points based on the properties of the body of water, which made it a natural place for the new metric methods of the Age. increasing Light. Indeed, it’s such an obvious idea that Celsius was far from one person to come up with it – ask the Frenchman who invented the 100 degree temperature scale, and you’ll get the answer “Jean Pierre Christin”, who while he was working. the same concept at the same time as Celsius.
What set Celsius apart, however, was the careful scientific work that established his two fixed points – zero and 100 – which is why, in the end, he got his name. But the 100-degree scale would have removed its name: in the mid-19th century, scientists such as Carl August Wunderlich were working entirely on the centigrade, arguing that “The simplicity of this scale will soon lead to its general adoption by all men of science.”
And boy is he proven right. Considering that here in the 21st century, we are all “scientific” in our view – which, admittedly, is not as true as we would like to think, but hey – centigrade, and Celsius especially. the temperature measurement to use. Almost everyone in the world is familiar with it, apart from the usual suspects; there is a little rhyme to help you remember how it works.
Celsius is, in general, way easy to work with when it comes to science. Take a calorie, for example: you might think of it as 1/550 of a Big Mac, but it’s actually defined as the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one liter of water by one degree. Celsius.
But what really cemented Celsius’ place in the scientific world was its adoption by Lord Kelvin – who was the guy who gave us, well, Kelvin: a scale that starts at zero and increases in exactly the same degrees as the Celsius scale. This makes the conversion between the two systems very easy: no multiplication by funny fractions is needed, just add 273 from Celsius to Kelvin, or subtract it the other way around.
Why was Kelvin’s use of the centigrade scale so important? It’s an idea: the Kelvin scale doesn’t just measure temperature, but thermodynamic temperature – as Julia Scherschligt, an expert in vacuum and pressure metrology at the National Institute of Science and Technology in the United States, told Live Science in 2021, “absolutely, it has nothing to do with fixed points.”
“It describes the amount of kinetic energy in the particles that make up the blob of matter, which vibrates and wobbles around at invisible levels,” he explained. “When the temperature drops, the particles shrink until at some point, all movement stops. This is absolute zero, which is the symbol for the Kelvin scale. ”
Judgment
So, who comes out on top? Well, it depends: do you follow a simple, logical way of thinking about the weather, or do you want to explain some kind of cosmic phenomenon?
Of course, Fahrenheit has a lot going for it. Nothing is easy to use – let’s face it: if you’re reading this in the US, speaking Celsius fluently probably won’t help much in everyday life.
But if we’re talking about science – and, given the name of the publication, let’s hope we are – Celsius probably beats Fahrenheit. As a unit derived from the Kelvin, it can be defined clearly in terms of physical conditions; it is easy to use in experiments because it is well based on the water structure, and it is in good agreement with measurements of other quantities.
All in all, maybe the real winner is… Kelvin. Scherschligt pointed out that: “Quantity can be measured with extraordinary accuracy on any scale.” But only Kelvin is based on physics, which means it is the most accurate scale.
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