Why do Americans use Fahrenheit? - Big Questions - (Ep. 37)
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- čas přidán 6. 07. 2024
- A weekly show where we endeavor to answer one of your big questions. This week, Martin Prince asks, "Why do Americans use Fahrenheit?"
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so basically the reason USA still don't use metric system is because of stubbornness?
Pietro Lo basically
Yep
Pietro Lo If Gay marriage eventually got legal, then so can the Metric system be adoped.
It's just gonna take an ass-numbingly long time, like any other rational ideas.
'Merica!
Pietro Lo Yes
Pietro Lo Many STEM professionals do actually use the metric system in the US. I don't think it's just stubbornness, though. It would cost billions of dollars to switch over now.
At least we can agree on -40, what an agreeable temperature
"I know some of you hate it when I don't use Celsius. So, today, I'm gonna spend an entire video talking about Fahrenheit."
ROFLOL
Being old enough that I was in elementary school at the time of the last aborted attempt to change over, I would like to point out part of the issue was the way the whole thing was sold to the American people.
First, the primary reason given was that we "had to" because the rest of the world had/was switching. This went contrary to two things, Americans felt they should be leading not following and our mothers all taught us not to follow the crowd ("If all your friends are jumping off a bridge...").
Second, it was seen as a French system at a time when American relations with France were becoming strained. American military bases had recently been closed and many still felt originally the US had come to the aid of the French in Vietnam who abandoned the cause, leaving it to the Americans to slog through.
Had the Metric system been sold as "easier" and "more convenient" it likely would have taken hold.
AJ Ketchum lol... hearing that sounds a bit depressing... thanks for the history lesson ^^
Considering todays sentiment towards the metric system - why do you think people want to keep the imperial system today? Is it purely habit, or are there other sentiments such as you described?
*****
I think the former is more likely.
AJ Ketchum That's a seriously fascinating piece of info. Very illuminating.
Though, personally, I think the most compelling argument to change to Metric is "if we keep using Imperial, the terrorists WIN!!"
*****
Actually i lived through change from local currency to euro in Europe.
People who had to deal with their own currency their whole life took about 4 years to comfortably switch to euros entirely. For most others its shorter.
Before the euro entered the market, large campaigns ran to teach the public to make accurate and rough estimations of local currency to euro and back conversions.
Shops displayed euros and local currency for a long time when the euro entered. People could pay with local currency and euros for a while, until only euro was allowed, but you could still exchange old currency for euros at the banks.
School books with old currency symbols kept on being used until they had to be replaced. Teachers simply instructed their students to write euros and pretend it said euros in the books. The math problems dont rlly change, and example prices are not realistic half of the time anyway.
Heck, people made pocket converters - calculator kind of things - for people. There are already converter apps out there - even google converts for you.
Mistakes were made of course, sometimes old currency symbols would be printed when euro prices were meant.
You could easily run similar things for many products and figures in the USA.
The weather could report celcius and fahrenheit atop of one another. Road signs may sometimes have two languages in certain areas - simply print another sign with km/h, hang it above - and after some years take down the mile sign.
Its not difficult to break people's habit. It just takes a few years during a transition period. After some additional years people lost their feel for the old currency.
***** While many of us use more Metric than others, we all use it to some extent. Medications are in miligrams. Cola is sold in 2 Liter bottles. Changing over is not as difficult as people imagine.
Screw Celsius and Fahrenheit. Kelvin FTW!
YAY KELVIN! although personally. I think we should mesure the electromagnetic radiation emitted by an object and use that wavelength as a measure of temperature
Kelvin is basically Celsius. Only, you know, lower.
Simo Puttonen There are 273.15 reasons why that is not a good idea...
Well we used kelvin to define absolute zero. But it is basically the same
Simo Puttonen Rankine FTW. :P
I feel that one of the reasons America won't switch over is simply because of how difficult it would be for the public.
Just imagine suddenly being told that something you've done your entire life was being done wrong and you had to switch immediately. It wouldn't be easy to switch just like that. For most Americans it would be like forcing them to learn a second language.
Not to mention most household things in America that have to do with measurements (measuring cups and spoons, stuff like that) are all in Imperial, and most people can't afford to just throw out their possessions and buy new ones. I sure as hell know I can't.
Crawfishness Sweden has switched from left-hand traffic to right-hand traffic in the 60s, most European countries switched their currency over night and many Anglo-Saxon countries were ablo to convert to the metric system to some degree.
It's going to take some effort, but I doubt the American people won't be capable to do the same. Sure, it'll take some time, but how many measurements does the average person really need? Celsius for temperature, meter and kilometer for distances and grams/kilograms for weight. Seems possible for the self-proclaimed greatest nation on earth.
mrmister0907 Personally, even if we do switch over to Metric in the future, I still prefer Fahrenheit as a measurement of temperature in regards to weather.
I just prefer the accuracy that comes with smaller numbers.
Crawfishness - Also, consider these examples:
-----------SI------------
Q: A car produces 100 kW of power for 10 s. How many joules are used up?
A: 10000*10 = 1000000 J = 1 MJ
-----IMPERIAL-----
Q: A car produces 100 bhp for 10 s. How many Calories are used up?
A: (Eeerrr... let me just get my converter and my calculator)
.The point is that the imperial units aren't even compatible with themselves!
Crawfishness This is true, but there are many countries who have successfully switched, regardless of the difficulties you would think might come of it. I live in Canada, and have been using metric for my entire life since we switched in the 70s, but my grandparents still use Fahrenheit when they talk about the weather. The biggest thing is that it begins to be taught in schools, allowing children to learn the metric system from the start so that the next generation will be completely comfortable with it. Still a huge transition, yes, but one that is certainly possible. Just takes time. :)
James Filosa Good point, but calories are Metric. One calorie is the amount of energy needed to raise one gram of water one degree Celsius. You should have used the BTU or British thermal unit. That is the amount of energy to raise one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit.
I wonder why would anyone use anything other than Celsius, kilometres and kilograms. There so many weird units that don't even make any sense, like feet, pounds, gallons...The three systems I mentioned are more than enough, really.
SabakuSouSou87 The only thing that keeps me from wholeheartedly supporting metric is actually the foot. Lets say I want to measure a table, a meter is too big, and centimeters are too small to effectively manage it. Decimeters are also a touch small for that, but more usable than centimeter or meter, but none of the deci units are ever actually used in metric, a foot (roughly 30 centimeters) is a good size for that use.
Channing Helmling-Cornell What? None of what you said makes sense.
Channing Helmling-Cornell I disagree. My table is 120x75 cm. How many feet is that?
Channing Helmling-Cornell Actually, most people in the metric system measuring tables use milimeters, because thats the standard measurement size for construction.
Another good thing is scalability. Measure a scale model to be 10mm in width, and you can multiply it by the scale factor and have your answer.
in inch or feet you ll have to convert inch to feet and feet to km to make sense of it.
in the metric system, we just cut or add some zeros.
SabakuSouSou87 #Murica because we're stubborn, i'd like to switch, if i ever have kids hopefully i'll remember to teach them metric at an early age
While I do prefer the metric system, I think air temperature should be measured in Fahrenheit. It matches the body in that 0 is very cold and 100 is very hot to the human body.
***** yeah no it doesn't. 0 degrees in celcius is freezing point which is incredibly useful in countries that actually have temperatures below that, because you know exactly when the road can turn icy. 100 degrees in fahrenheit is very hot to the human body? Are you kidding? That's luke warm.
***** how?
put1996 because 100 F is 37.7 C which is about human temperature.
Simonas Mažeikis Have you ever experience 100F/38C weather? I somehow think not. Or did you mean something else?
JVee Veneracion yes exactly, so how is 100 very hot.
America uses Fahrenheit because it starts with F, just like freedom. Celsius starts with C, just like Communism.
ArmageddonAngel Imperial units start with I, just like ineffecient or inconsistent, Metric start with M, just like marvelous.
John Erggs Or malignant, just like the cancer that is Europe.
The point being there's plenty of words starting with virtually any letter, which is not really a good case for a system of measurements.
That F is the first letter of faggot and Fahrenheit, or that C is the first letter of Communism and Celsius is irrelevant in choosing what system is better.
ArmageddonAngel oh I see.... F just like Fuck, and C just like Cool...
bbdawise
F is more like fucking useless and c is more like current standard.
The millimetre is far better than fractions of an inch. In fact the only imperial measurement i really like if the foot. I can understand that but the rest is just shit.
Yo Adrian fractions of an inch are more accurate and preferred when precision machining, the millimeter just isn't small enough.
Yo Adrian Yeah, the foot/inches interaction is fantastic. What's 1/3 of a meter? 33.3333 cm. What's 1/3 of a foot? 4 inches. Doudecimal system, for the win.
***** If a milimeter isn't small enough, just use micrometers, and if that still isn't small enough just use nanometers or picometers.
Lutranereis whats 1/100th of a foot? .012 inches. Whats 1/100th of a meter? a centimeter. Both systems can be better in their own special cases, but we are born learning base 10, with feet being in base 12.
TheEvilVargon Fair point, but the duodecimal system works better with more common fractions than the decimal system. There are a lot of woodworkers who still use the the imperial system because of that fact.
Fahrenheit>Celsius Metric>Imperial
NickSnack Films Fahrenheit
NickSnack Films Can you back that argument up in any way?
Kaalivanukas Fahrenheit is more accurate in temperatures we deal with daily, Metric as a base ten intead of a base 12, so its easier on us
Joseph Fox In my daily use, measuring temperature revolves around whether my shit's gonna freeze overnight, so celsius is very handy to people in colder climates like Northern and Central Europe.
Besides, it's logical in daily use too. 0 is cold, 10 is chilly-ish, 20 is room temp, 30 is hot, 40 is scorching and 50 is dead. I don't get what's the problem with that.
But I'd say it's not *that* logical to base a temperature measurement system on subjective temperature, because a huge part of subjective temperature is humidity and wind. Humid -15c with 5ms wind feels colder than dry -30c for example.
Kaalivanukas
really all messurements are not going logical, I mean people did make them
Fahrenheit is good for weather
Celsius is good for food preparation.
Kelvin is good for atoms.
William John Goodwater - But if you want a REALLY good unit for weather, you should use aK (attokelvin).
William John Goodwater It's funny you should say that. The last time I was in Canada, I noticed that weather reports are in Celsius but cook books and ovens were in Fahrenheit. Their preference seems to be opposite of yours.
KFC
William John Goodwater I think the system you use doesn't make much difference once you're used to it, but using a standard all around the world can make things easier (just imagine what it'd be like if we measured time differently).
oh i know, im not saying we should go with a 3 measuring system. but I am expressing thats how a these systems fit. they all have there pros and cons. Fahrenheit is good for human temperature because its like a scale of 0-100, 0 being really cold and 100 being really hot in terms of weather.
"Fahrenheit has smaller degrees so you can get twice the level of precision"
I think precision is more important in my temperature, thus making Fahrenheit the "obviously" better system.
Jeffery Liggett you forgot to mention the rest of the phrase, "without using decimals", Fahrenheit is NOT two times more precise its just that you don't need the decimal for the same precision, and the fact that the choices made in the creation of the Fahrenheit system seems completely arbitrary contrary to Celsius actually make it far worse to use,
don't believe me then just ask any serious scientist out there
Another thing to take into account is that since Celsius can be directly related to Kelvin it ends up being easier to use when studding physics and chemistry since when you need to deal with a DIFFERENCE in temperature you don't need to convert from one to another and even if you do it basically involves just adding 274 to your Celsius value instead of doing more annoying conversion from F to K.
If we wanted precision we would measure everything as multiples of the plank constant but that's impractical so instead we use units that make sense. Metric makes sense. Deal with it.
Jeffery Liggett I agree, but I'm still metric all the way. Play football in metres!
Guaranteed replies.
markog1999 precision, without decimals. Plank constant is just bad idea since you'd basically have to refer things in sextillion planks.
But metric system has this neat feature of centimeters and millimeters etc. You can get pretty precise without decimals.
What's wrong with decimals?
By the way, what's with the cups thing in cooking?
starlinguk ah man that gets me even more... cups, spoons... WHY?? xD
They're just shortcuts for cooking. Rather than needing to measure out amounts by weight or volume each time, you can just fill up the appropriate size cup and know that proportionally you're putting in the right amount of the ingredient. Cups roughly parallel grams and ounces (250g is about a cup) but because of the different compresibilities and masses of ingredients there's no true equivalency.
99thTuesday Where im from we have those handy measuring cup with different scales to the side. Ones for water, one is for sugar, one is for flour, etc....
It solves the density issue you have with cups.
A friend of mine cooks with cups and spoons - and she has a set of special plastic spoons and cups and what not. So much extra stuff...
The problem is though, that cups hardly translate to grams or ml, exactly because of the density issue, but we can still translate it by volume.
Bit weird to have to work with 250ml of flour though....
99thTuesday A cup measures volume, not weight. 1 cup = 236.6 mL
Frank Reynolds
looked deeper into it. FDA defines a cup as 240ml.
www.fda.gov/food/guidanceregulation/guidancedocumentsregulatoryinformation/ucm063102.htm
I just moved to the US from Canada is this is one of the things that I am having the most difficulty adjusting to.
There are two types of countries, ones that use Celsius and ones that have been to the moon.
Aj Koorstra Last time I checked neither Russia nor China used fahrenheit :P
I meant to type put humans on the moon, but yeah you're totally right
Gábor Patrik Fodor ...and neither have landed men on the moon. And it was a joke, but a true joke.
James Hough ^I didn't know he meant humans
You only need to put one human on the moon to prove it can be done
As someone that lives in the UK, I find it hard to think of temperature in anything but Celsius. Interestingly though, ready-meals and other foods with cooking instructions still list both Celsius and Fahrenheit, even if the product was prepared and packaged in the UK.
Jack Chapman people like to act like the uk is metric but its 50/50, anything to with the road is in miles and i see a lot of signs that say yards, only problem is i dont know what a yard is
Yards are roughly 9/10ths of a metre. 10 yards = 9 metres (ish). I'm still not sure why we operate in miles on the road either, but I appreciate that it might difficult for the Americans to stop using Fahrenheit because I don't think I could stop using miles in favour for kilometres.
daniel117100 A yard is 3 feet! Which is about .9 meters.
daniel117100 yard=3 feet
Jack Chapman a yard is three feet, a foot is meant to be the same as a human foot, but it is actually 12inches, an inch is about the length of the middle segment on your index finger.
Because most of the time we are talking about the weather which, gasp, usually falls between 0 and 100.
***** Yeah, but you get half the granularity and for 6 months out of the year you sound like an idiot talking about negatives.
James Hough Yes, because that matters, does it? If anything, Celsius has the advantage here, because you know that below zero degrees, you're going to have to look out for slippery surfaces, which might actually be useful. Certainly, it's more useful than just knowing the rough temperature boundaries of typical weather.
Robert Faber If you guys can't remember the number 32 = freezing, then I really don't know what to tell you. Science and engineering uses C because it's clearly more useful for that. For the ONLY thing we use if for.. relaying the weather and body temperatures, F is fine, if not better.
Christopher Penta Well, I never claimed it was a massive advantage. Of course it's trivial, but surely James Hough's argument is of even more trivial importance. If you hit zero degrees Celsius, at least you know something is happening that might actually affect the way you engage with the environment, namely the fact that it starts to freeze. Go below zero degrees Fahrenheit and all you know is that it's colder than it typically gets any time of the year. It's a contest of complete pointlessness, but for what it's worth, I reckon Celsius wins it by being ever so slightly less pointless.
Robert Faber Nobody has ever died from sliding on ice because they forgot that water freezes at 32.
Craig is such an awesome host. Silly yet professional, a combo not many can pull off. Loved the old timey voices hah
favorite mental floss host!!!
Before any useful information, that joke at the beginning already got my like.
The reason Fahrenheit has its zero point where it does is because a particular mixture of ice water and salt would normalize to that temperature on its own, giving it a nice and easily reproduced baseline. It was not an arbitrary thing, any more than using the freezing and boiling point of a common molecule is an arbitrary choice.
SI is perfect because no silly correction factors are necessary when moving between units... different from old units like kcal for example, J is direct.
I'm actually OK with F. Unlike every other imperial measurement, measures of temperature only come in the base until, meaning there are no other unit other than the base. IE no meters and kilometers or feet, inches, yards, miles, ect. F also gives a more precise measure without needing decimals. It's one and only one imperial unit that is superior to its SI or metric equivalent.
Don't forget Fahrenheit's intuitive nature. 0 is dangerously cold, 100 is dangerously hot, 50 is right in the middle!
To be fair, it's really hard to switch when you've been taught all your life to think about temperature and measurement a certain way.
Well it's not like the uk is any better. I mean like wtf is stones in weight?
How did you learn that? Were you like walking down the street and heard that? Or just watching national geographic? Where in America do people just know this? Cuz they sure dont teach that in schools. *sighs* I hate really hate the American school system.
Oh ok. I kinda assumed you were the same age as me (16 years old). It's no surprise to me, if you already know that then.
Loved the RAH at the end
We might use celsius in the UK but we're messed up with our other measurements. We're happy to use cm and metres but not for our own heights, that's feet and inches (no idea what my height is in cm), and longer distances are not measured in km but miles. We weigh our selves in stones and pounds (no idea how much I weigh in kg) but, depending on our age, weigh things like cooking ingredients in grams. And we're very happy to use both pints and litres when measuring liquids. We're a silly bunch of people.
In other words the same reason why it took us so long to get rid of slavery and have same sex marriages.
Are you equating those to measurement systems?
WOAH MAN UR LIEK SO POLITICALLY SAVVY OMG U R DA NEXT JON STEWART LELELELELEL
SinisterSally We technically didn't have slavery for that long. The USA didn't even have slavery for 100 years. Other nations took centuries to outlaw slavery.
SinisterSally We are one of the very few nations in the world that have fully legalized same sex marriage, so no.
Okay okay, I was just trying to say many of us Americans have this idea that we are the best and we have no reason to change. I'm sorry if you took offense of me equating measurement to slavery or the fight for equality.
So Fahrenheit's scale is based off arbitrary and unrelated phenomena, like all imperial scales... just as I thought.
Imperial units are based off intuitive everyday life phenomenons, which are anything but arbitrary.
Yeah, because the freezing point of most of the water in the world (salt water) is arbitrary and that of fresh water isn't.
All units of measurement have arbitrarily chosen sizes and starting points.
"Cause america, raww"
Beautiful quote
Best Host Ever!
Cuz it's America
And I'm American
And in America we do what we like
Sarah Jean Thats why the USA is the richest country with the most issues.
Americans think they are better than the rest of the world and so are unwilling to compare themselves to the rest. Turns out, the world is passing you by.
For example: a study was done giving students an international test in their respective languages. They were asked to rate their confidence in their test scores. The USA students won in confidence, but not in academic performance.
Did he say America was the best? No. He just said that us Americans do what we want.
Kip Higginson
Did he call himself Sarah Jeanne?
Can you read ?
OMG someone highfive whoever came up with that intro joke!
Celsius is just as arbitrary as Fahrenheit. We don't use temperature for water any more often than for other substances. We use temperature most often for weather, whose range Fahrenheit covers quite closely from 0 to 100 and not the awkward -20 to 40 on the Celsius scale.
How do they successfully dock on the iss?
I prefer metric system myself because it makes more sense but converting Fahrenheit to celcius still confuses me. Let's meet in the middle and do metric, keep Fahrenheit? lol
Faylina Meir A while ago the EU has the same issue when changing to the EU. What do you do with all the price changes, the different markings, and so on...
Sometimes the euro value was displayed with the old symbol, so mistakes were made. But before switching to the euro, they ran campaigns about how to convert the values. Banks would even offer these toy like calculator converters if you opened a new account...
In school we were told to just to math pretending it was a euro symbol, and write the euro symbol, while the book had the old currency.
Stores would display both values for a time - and for a long while euros would be given in change, but you could pay with the old currency too.
People slowly get used to it, and then the old currency is thrown out completely.
I imagine the USA could do something similar for a while, using both measurements and putting them side by side. And ultimately F will be left out in more and more places.
Faylina Meir What's so hard? For every 9 degrees over or under 32 degrees Fahrenheit, you add or subtract 5 degrees to 0 degrees Celsius. So 59 degrees Fahrenheit is 3(9) degrees over 32, and thus is 15 degrees Celsius.
Lutranereis I know I know but for some reason I just can't seem to grasp it haha
Lutranereis
Or you can pull out your smartphone and type "0 celcius to fahrenheit" and it ll spit out the answer. c.c
You are correct though, its not that difficult - but most ppl hate doing the math. Its not very convincing to have people switch.
***** Math isn't even necessary. It's one of those things you just get used to. For example, I was raised on Celsius and I can usually guess the temperature outside within 2 degrees, but god forbid you want it in Fahrenheit.
KELVIN FTW WOOT WOOT
Were I work, we make a miniature sensor that records temperature. We store the temperature in Fahrenheit because our microprocessor only stores positive whole numbers and Fahrenheit gives better precision without needing to dealing with fixed point numbers or fractions. (And allows us to go a little lower without needing negative numbers) The app that displays the number converts it to Celsius.
Question: Every once in a while, when I am on the highway, I see these black lines on the road. These lines appear to be somewhat reflective and then when we drive closer they disappear. I was wondering what these lines are and if they are normal.
We use BOTH systems here in the States depending on circumstance. In school in any science class everything is metric, yet in blue collar fields, like construction, imperial units are prevalent. As far as temperature is concerned U.S. scientists use either Celsius or Kelvin scales, but in weather we always use Fahrenheit. I prefer it because the degrees are smaller so, for example, you can refer to how hot it is by the tens like saying it's in the eighties, nineties, or hundreds. We're in a heat wave right now, and it's been in the hundreds for a week and will be for another week more. It was 109º (43º C) in the shade on my back porch yesterday! :(.
Without looking it up, how many of you imperial users can tell of the top of your heads how many feet are in a mile?
Is this like a trick question and it isn't actually 5280, but really 5280 and 2/7 of an inch?
+John Ellis
Freedom in the States is an illusion, unless you're part of the elite 1%.
+JanetStarChild Yep, and 9/11 was an inside job, the illuminati are stealing our left-footed socks and JFK was assassinated by alien robots sent back from a future cyborg alternate dimension.
+Gumaro R. Villamil
everyone.
5280 ft in a mi
Gumaro R. Villamil
Probably few enough and I use feet
😉to walk on
Why is it when you exhale like in the whistling position it comes out cold, but when you exhale with your mouth open it comes out hot?
Up next week, the video we posted a few weeks back
It's just insane to NOT use metric system for ANYTHING. Gallons, yards, inches, fahrenheit. It's all pretty stupid and absurd.
You're right about all the other units, but Fahrenheit is actually a very convenient and intuitive way to measure air temperature. It fits very well with human temperature perception. Read my more detailed post above.
mbiesheuvel Gallons is better for gas, you know the oil companies would love to charge us $2 a litter....
How?
Metric is better America is stupid
Death !! How?
Fahrenheit is more useful in day-to-day life, because it loosely outlines comfortable living conditions for a human. Under 0 is dangerously cold and over 100 is dangerously hot. Celsius is focused on water, so half of the scale is never even felt by humans! Also, fine tuning the temperature of a thermostat by degrees in Fahrenheit is easier than raising by fractions in Celsius.
For scientific measurements we should ignore Celsius and just use Kelvin. They're the same thing anyway. And then replace the entire Imperial system (except for Fahrenheit) with metric measurements.
StanishStudios It's what you get accustomed to. Growing up, all I used was fahrenheit. Now I think in celsius (I live in Canada).
In Canada, we use celsius for weather, but oven temperatures are still fahrenheit. Thermostats in the home could be either; some people prefer them calibrated in fahrenheit (mostly older folks) and some in celsius. Most if not all programmable thermostats can be converted.
We should all move to a base 12 system. Base Ten isn't that great for fractions.
likenem Your comment seems arbitrary, as technically any base isn't good for rounding some sort of fraction in some way or another... There is no "perfect base", but ten was selected as we can count it easily on our hands. It seems like this is probably easiest for children and the mathematically challenged.
likenem I'll say it isn't. Dividing something into any fraction which isn't a power of two is a pain. Let's go to octal. No need to add any new symbols.
Mystro256
Your four fingers are dived into 3 segments that add up to 12. 5/12 is actually pretty easy to visualize on your fingers. Base 12 would actually help mathematically challenged. Kids. 1/3, 1/6, 1/9 and 1/12 are easier in base 12.
***** Octal does make sense for understanding computers and binary easier. Plus we can just skip the thumbs.
*****
Not really for base 12. 7 is the only number in base 12 where you would get a repeating decimal.
probably the most stupid temperature scale of all times
just because you use a scale does not mean other scale is stupid since they still use til now that means it works just fine that just like saying oh euro and us dollar it just a conversion thing
Vital Mark for real i think you watch too many american movies i guess
Ronald Reagan hates centimeters spread the word
TheRazrsharp16
To speak to the millennials you should say Donald Trump😀
Dont forget about how changing all the speed limit signs from mph to kph across the country will be an expensive and daunting process. Also, every manufactured item in America is standardized in the standard system, so converting all measurments in a car engine will bring up some problems when reengineered.
Fahrenheit is a much more useful scale for day-to-day use. That precision Craig mentioned makes it easier to conceive of the subjective temperature.
Step into the future US, join us
Because it's more useful for measuring normal the temperatures of day to day life.
0 Fahrenheit - really cold. 100 Fahrenheit - really hot.
0 Celsius - Kind of cold. 100 Celsius - Dead.
Live with it.
Christopher Penta But if you live somewhere cold it's really important to know when the roads are icy. That's why Celcius is better, cause it's clear, that anywhere below 0 °celcius is frozen. And if you live in Finland and like to enjoy some nice relaxing saunas, then 100 °celcius is not only the boiling point of water, it's also the optimal for hot sauna.
I think it's kinda arbitrary really. I've grown up with Celcius my whole life and I know when it comes to temperature 30°C= quite hot. I don't really think it matters too much
FinFan94 You know, when the roads are icy, they'll say it on the weather when they tell you the temperature. Or... you know that anywhere below 32 is frozen. It's quite simple. 32 is freezing. Everyone that is above the age of 6 knows that.
***** It really doesn't. People use it to rag on Americans, even though the ONLY times we use F is to tell the weather and body temperature. And cooking. Applications where higher granularity is better, and you aren't ever going to convert it or use it in formulas.
Christopher Penta so "when it's icy" is simple but to know "35+ is really hot and -10 is really cold" is too hard for you? Don't you see, you're just used to fahrenheit? Which I get, but same with metric system...it makes less sense.
Why does getting your back scratched feel so good?
Props to you for using the more confusing system, problem is, a lot of the people opposing the metric system don't even know what is measured by what.
Why does paper become translucent with the addition of water / oil?
This is a hot video, and real cool to a certain degree.
Why does England still use miles and Miles per per hour when measuring distance and speed for cars but everything else in metric system?
How does celcius differ from "centigrade"? I'm guessing its just another name for it that means grades of one hundred referring to the place ten numbering system used by the SI.
Not everything coverted over to the metric system - e.g. metric time - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_time
Also I read an article (can't remember where) that mentioned fractions and natural counting numbers, and the most common fractions. And how that pertains to 12 inches in a foot - e.g. 1/3 of a foot is 4 inches, 1/4 of a foot is 3 inches.
1/4 of a meter is 25 centimeters, but 1/3 of a meter is 3.333333 (repeating)
So there is a good case for base 12 counting
Hi, in the UK we use F for when it's hot & C when it's cold. why does US military use "Klicks" for distance one klick = one kilometre & everybody in the world use feet for aircraft flying height?
why do our eyes become bloodshot when we are tired or have an allergy attack? if the veins are there all the time, why does their appearance become more prominent under certain circumstances?
As an engineer in the United States, I can give an honest reason for why my industry (Oil and Gas) uses all imperial systems: The tools used in oil and gas drilling around the world were developed in the United States, and all of the advanced research is done here. Couple that with an aging workforce, and there's no way we'll be switching in the forseeable future.
My Big Question: Why do mirrors and chrome appear silver, yet the reflections don't have a change in color tone/hue?
How do glasses improve eyesight?
One explanation I heard that sort of made sense was how useful the Fahrenheit scale was when discussing the relative comfort of the weather from 0 to 100F. At 0F you're very cold, at 100F you're very hot. As opposed to 0C where you're sort of cold and 100C where you're dead.
***** But that misses the point of a temperature scale... The point of a good temperature scale is to be able to accurately calibrate it at 2 points, and then break the scale between that up into a number of degrees.
Your argument doesnt rlly work though... When its 0, am i 0 comfortable, and when its 100 im 100 comfortable?
You could make the same argument about celcius that with every 10 degrees, we take a step in comfort level.
0 is cold and freezing.
10 is cold but you dont need gloves and such
20 is very comfortable with thin clothing
30 is tropically warm
40 is dangerously hot and you should find a way to cool yourself off
the comfort argument isnt a good one...
How does sunscreen work?
Last reason summed it all up perfectly
Craig is my favorite host out of all of the others on this channel.
Please answer the question what happens when you tense muscles.
Why is letter sized paper 8.5" by 11"?
I adore him more than I should. ^^.
Metric is easy to convert but hard to measure. Imperial is hard to convert but easy to measure. Most imperial units are based off of human body parts ie feet based on feet, inch based on thumb, yard based on stride, etc.
I think we should use dC, or double Celsius. It's the temperature in Celsius times two. This means that hot days are more "impressive", and you get the increased resolution, but it still is easy to convert back to regular Celsius. It keeps the feel of fahrenheit.
The only time when I actually use the metric system is when I am in science class. The distance system makes more sense, but for casual measuring I prefer inches and feet. I don't think I could ever get used to Celsius though.
why does the British thermal unit use Imperial Standard vs Metric
Why do bridges ice more than roadways?
How can dogs detect earthquakes or storms?
So why is kelvin use in chemestry?
+Demauscian You wrong about Fahrenheit vs Celsius. Because Kelvin is almost the same as Celsius. When you add 273,15 to Celsius, you get Kelvin. When you subtract from Kelvin 273,15, you get Celsius. Scale is LINEAR. Thats why Celsius is better. Linear scale, very easy calculations. Read how Fahrenheit made scale, you will see where is problem (this scale is nonlinear, thats why in science this scale is usless).
2:26 - But decimals are beautiful...
I wish we in the UK would go full metric instead of the patchwork we have. I don't have a concept of km/h but I'm sure I would once it's phased in.
Is it true that ostriches put their head in a whole when they seance danger or is that something just in cartoons. If true, why?
There is one major problem with the metric system: because it operates in decimal, it's really hard to divide into anything other than halves, fifths and tenths. If the metric system (or better yet the world) used duodecimal, it would be easily divisible into halves, thirds, fourths, sixths, and twelfths.
Why is it easier to keep our bodies in something really cold (i.e. an ice bath) than to keep it in something really hot (i.e. turning the shower handle too far toward the hot side and then getting in without checking the temperature with your hand first)?
"That one might be a Fahrenheit actually" cracked me up! :D
I have heard people say that when you buy a new cell phone, you should let the battery die completely before charging it the first time, or you shorten the life of the battery. Is there any truth to this?
Why create a temperature scale based on the freezing point of salt water? The water can have varying amounts of salt.
I like using Fahrenheit because it relates to the temperature outside, like generally 0° is just about the coldest it gets (where I live) and 100° is the hottest. It's a nice scale to have for weather
Here's a relevant question: If metric people always use prefixes on their metric base units to define larger and smaller measurements, where the "easiness" of the x10 conversion factors comes from that they often use as their selling point for the system, then why do those very same people still use such an uneven progression of units to measure time in? 12 inches = 1 foot, 3 feet = 1 yard, 5280 feet = 1 mile? That's crazy! 60 minutes = 1 hour, 24 hours = 1 day, 365.25 days = 1 year? That makes perfect sense! Why aren't "convert to metric" people also trying to make everyone use metric time, like kiloseconds and such? If they're going to be so _in_sistent, they may as well be _con_sistent.
tl;dr, Why is time measurement immune to metric prefixes in everyday practice, while seemingly every other thing with units isn't?
(Seriously, is there a good reason for this?)
In Oz, we use imperial for a small selection of random things, people's height, baby's weights, horse tracks etc. metric is pretty random too, I mean what the livid piss is a gram anyways?
it's more precise. That's why I like it. For instance... 70F is just right for sleeping. 71F is too warm... in Celsius... that's 21.1C is just right and 21.6C is too warm. that's just right and too warm encompassed by 1 degree.
In general the weights and measures we use for every day things allow for more precision in whole numbers. Metric is great for doing calculations but for every day experience it falls short. I use and understand both.
How is money converted into other currencies?
What's the benefit of being able to be able to write a higher temperature before placing decimal pages? Something silly as a cap of characters?
There's another measurement system involved. If your're shirt opens up between buttons, it need to be larger.
Why do smells change when you are pregnant?
In schools the metric system is used in science classes in America. So kids graduating high school and going into STEM programs in college with be using metric system. I personally think it's fine that the rest of the stuff remains as it is.
Another merit of the Traditional System is the fact that it's all based on the measurements of the human body, therefore it's easily understood and easily estimated. For example, the inch is approximately the length of the thumb, the foot is approximately your forearm, a yard is the length of a stride, etc. This doesn't make it better than the metric system but it's definitely one of the reasons why people still like to use it.
I use my own called Zephic
(Basically celsius times 100)
What's the difference between The Netherlands and Holland?
Taylor Stewart Sometimes they mean the same: the country between belguim and luxemburg. Thats the most common use today.
Historically speaking, Holland refered to 2 provinces on the west coast, which were the wealthiest and central parts of the Dutch country. Though provinces isnt a very accurate name for them historically speaking, but i wont go into that.
Netherlands comes from the words 'Neder and lands'. Neder means low. Even the French call the Netherlands the 'low coutries / Pays-Bas'. Though in Dutch we stopped using the plural form. The Netherlands has become Nederland.
While we are at it: Dutch comes from the word Deutsch, which means German. Since the Dutch language is an off split of the german language.
I got a big question:
Why doesn't the body continue sleeping/napping? Why, how, and what?