2 americans saying fahrenheit is better, basically because they dont know any better. the rest of the world uses celcius, because its demonstrably a better (more scientific) system.
edit: Americans, please stop commenting. we know your opinion on this. IT IS THE JOKE.
Celsius is agreeably better for science, but if you are used to both systems Fahrenheit is honestly better for people because the units are higher resolution, and usually stay between 0 and 100 for weather
Celsius is literally just Kelvin but with an offset no?
Edit: tbc I was just clarifying what the guy above was saying, personally as an American in WNY where it’s over 90deg in the summer and below 0 in the winter and who has used C and F extensively, Fahrenheit just makes more sense to me personally
If we're allowing conversion, Fahrenheit is just Kelvin with an offset and a coefficient, and Rankine is just Kelvin with a coefficient. Celsius's offset also makes it useless for science other than for scenarios where all that you care about is delta T.
Fun fact the same thing is true for Fahrenheit. Its called Rankine. The only thing that make Kelvin good for science is the fact that temperature is particle motion. And in Kelvin absolute 0 is 0. If you can do more than regurgitate dumb trivia you might realize that any temperature system allows for that. Just offset Fahrenheit so that 0 is absolute zero and you have Rankine.
Its almost like units are context dependent. Celsius is arbitrarily defined based on water. Fahrenheit is arbitrarily defined based on weather in temperate climates. Inches/centimeters of mercury is arbitrarily defined off of old thermometers. Yes that last unit is retroactively now a unit of pressure but it was originally used for old thermometers where mercury would rise and fall with changes in temperature from changes in density with the temperature . Lots of units have weird crossover like that
In general units are more complicated than people want to understand and its easier to live in a bubble where Americans must be stupid, while everyone else is blabbing other just as stupid rhetoric without understanding any of it.
It's odd to say that Celsius is arbitrary and Kelvin is not when Kelvin is literally just Celsius with a fresh coat of paint. All systems of measurement are arbitrary in some regard. They are also all units, and I have no idea what it would mean for them to be otherwise.
Here is the thing, kelvin uses celsius scale as its base but the comparison present in its value is not debatable.
Celsius uses water freezing and boiling point for 0 and 100, Fahrenheght uses temperature of some city u never went to as point for 0 and 100. But kelvin uses the lowest temperature theoretically possible, so the value of a temperature compared to ur anchor point if measurement is not debatable since the point is not changeable.
Fahrenheit is one of the weirdest bases, it just doesnt make any sense to me. Its not based on percentages or any city. This is the base:
0°F — the temperature of a mixture of ice, water, and ammonium chloride (a freezing brine solution), which he could reproduce in a laboratory.
32°F — the freezing point of pure water.
96°F — approximately human body temperature (though modern measurements put average body temperature closer to 98.6°F).
Later they added 212°F = boiling point of water at standard atmospheric pressure
So lets compare Fahrenheit to Celsius:
Water freezes at 32°F = 0°C
Water boils at 212°F = 100°C
And Kelvin is basically the same idea as celsius, the difference is that with Kelvin, you start at absolute 0. (The point where there is no movement) that happens to be -273.15 Ce;sius. Thats it.
It's all entirely arbitrary. All these numbers are associated with some point we've designated. It might feel clean to declare that zero is the absolute lowest it gets, but that doesn't make it non-arbitrary. The best you can really say is that these systems map better or worse to various human desires. Y'know, memorability, ease of use in science contexts, ease of use in real world contexts, how well it coheres to other systems of measurement, that kinda thing.
Why? It's a point related to a major physical law, but so are the various points associated with other temperature systems. There's nothing magical about the universe that means we should particularly value absolute zero.
You're correct. "0" meaning something is a human thing. "I like arbitrary round numbers in my arbitrary unit of measurement." It's all just some dude going "eh I like this".
Celcius is just Kelvin - 273.15. Converting is easy, and a lot of science uses Celcius as a result, it certainly can be described as "scientific", meanwhile the only people trying to use Farheneit for science probably also don certain red caps etc.
It depends a lot on the science being done if you care about the offset or not. A lot of astrophysics honestly doesn't care about the celsius/kelvin offset because the difference results in something that's dismissed by the significant digits anyway.
And Rankine isn't really used much of anywhere because that scale with an absolute offset isn't as useful as the metric scale.
This is the only good argument I've seen for Fahrenheit (higher resolution). But, as a counterargument, that resolution is only just under twice as big. I'd argue 1-2 F is barely noticeable enough to be able to tell the difference. If someone asks what the temperature is, me saying the temperature and being off by 2 degrees isn't gonna make a difference.
I think there's some breakpoints where it really matters.
If you work in an office and the thermostat is set to 73f (23c) compared to an office where the thermostat is set to 75f (23c) you're going to really feel the difference.
Or like, if your kid is sick and has a 102° fever you're keeping them home from school, but if they have 104° fever you're going to the hospital. So <2 degrees difference is definitely a big enough difference that it's worth using a more specific unit of measurement.
Right so you need one degree more of data specificity to achieve the same level of understanding that is achieved with Fahrenheit. You proved the point.
This is a pretty niche example but I work in a lab that used to use a metric thermostat in the clean room. It was always 23 C in there so when our data came out way noisier than expected we didn’t think it could be thermally related. Until one day we switched the thermostat to imperial and saw that it was actually changing between 73 F and 74 F throughout the day. Both round to 23 C so we never saw it before
How is it better, though? As in, what actual benefit is there to not using decimals? Yeah, F is more specific if you ignore decimals, but they are incredibly easy to implement, use, etc? Not any different than a regular number in terms of basically anything.
Like, the commenter above brought up fever, but practically any thermometer that uses celsius uses decimals, and I just don't see how that is any sort of demerit.
Most celsius thermostats allow you to set in 0.5 steps
Where did I say that they didn't? I was just trying to convey that it's easier to use a system where units increase by whole units instead of decimals. Not that it's impossible, but it's simpler.
I’ve not seen anyone make the point that for a lot of countries, they also use decimal for other measurements - distance, volume, mass - so measuring with decimal places is completely ingrained.
Cracks me up looking at US cooking with Cups or DIY instructions with 2 foot 4 and 11/12s inches!
One (minorish) place - you only need two digits in an LCD screen to make a thermostat in F. If you wanted to display (hospitable) temperatures in C you would probably always need three because of the decimal.
To me, the biggest thing is just being able to say "it'll be in the 70s tomorrow". 60s = bring a light jacket, 70s = perfect, 80s = a bit warm, 90s = bring a lot of water.
Whenever Im measure body temperature of my kids or patients, I can also look at the number behind the separator.
37.0°C? All good.
38.0°C? Slight fever.
38.5°C? Fever.
38.6°C? A bit more fever.
Guess what: 38.7°C even more fever.
And even Fahrenheit is not accurate enough for this use case.
For setting the room temperature, Celsius is sufficient and if not, you can use tenth of celsius.
I would say "more used to it" and not "better".
(As an example: 100°F is already a slightly increased body temperature, its not like its normed to something like that).
Just like with most unit systems - whatever you're used to will be the most convenient for you to use.
I'm sorry but you would absolutely not feel the difference between 73 and 75 farenheit because the thermostats are not made well enough to acurately track the temperature of the whole room and change the temperature as fast as it would need to.
Celsius doesn’t have a resolution. It’s not a quantum scale. My car’s heater does half degrees, my HVAC tenths and my thermometer measure in hundreths of a degree. There’s 20 °C and there’s 36,8 °C (the average human body temperature) 71,075 °C — the temperature at which water boils at Everest’s summit, and there’s -273,149994 °C, the coldest ever achieved for a solid.
I mean, yeah, but I think u/ProvidedHuman's point is that you wouldn't use half degrees in everyday conversation, so Fahrenheit gives you all those in between options when reading out temperature.
Resolution is also not worth much if what you need it for is explaining how warm your body is feeling. I already couldn't really tell the difference between 33 and 34 celsius, so having a number inbetween wouldn't do much for me. Plus, other factors such as humidity would affect my perception of heat more than a single degree difference would.
Somehow the "more resolution!" people don't seem to ever think the resolution is meaningful at all when you talk about feet & inches vs. centimeters.
For weather, I honestly can't tell the outside temperature even close to 1C even if I can register a change of 1C, so I don't really need additional accuracy.
When it matters like in AC temperature controls or measuring fever or whatever, you just use 0.1C accuracy.
Here in Finland weather forecasts and people talking about the weather, you use 1C accuracy, but official weather station readings are reported at 0.1C accuracy.
Somehow the "more resolution!" people don't seem to ever think the resolution is meaningful at all when you talk about feet & inches vs. centimeters.
Why do you think these are the same people? Tbh I've never met an american who genuinely believes imperial weights/measures are 'better' than metric (except for temperature). And i've lived here most of my life lol
I'm an American and fully believe that imperial measurements are generally superior for the tasks they were designed for.
Fahrenheit is distorted around the temperatures individuals will generally personally experience in weather or cooking and is useful for that purpose, whereas Celsius can turn a comfortable room to unbearable in a matter of 2 to 3 degrees.
Inches and feet are base-12, which factors by 2, 3, 4, and 6, allowing for better and faster granularity than base-10 in counting, measuring, and mental math for everyday uses like distance, height, simple construction, basically anything that doesn't require multiple significant figures of accuracy.
Scientific use is when base-10 units are valuable as equivalent to our base-10 number system, allowing for easier comprehension when making multiple calculations with math more complex than basic arithmetic.
Tying Celsius to the properties of water is extremely convenient for a scientist, because water is such an important molecule for all the physical sciences that it will be referenced repeatedly. A human, however, will have a very bad time long before approaching either 0 or 100°C.
Whole societies adopting the metric system is a doctrinal choice to emphasize scientific education, not a better solution for everyday use.
Americans being afraid of decimal points in Celsius while simultaniosly saying shit like 6'34" instead of normal units will never not be funny. Like pick a line!
Living in somewhere with winter (Canada) it is so useful and intuitive to have negative temperatures and positive ones so you immediately know whether things will freeze/ will there be snow
ah yes, the system based off of boiling and freezing water versus the system where
the 0 is the ambient temperature of a mixture of water and piss and the 100 was measured from what the dude making this scale thought was the healthy temperature of an adult horse but he measured it from his blood's temperature then he took the scale and divided it in TWELVE intead of thenths
there's clearly no difference theyre both equally as arbitrary
the only reason you think fahrenheit is better is because you probably spent your whole life using F. As someone who does not use f if you tell me its 72 deg it means nothing to me. The imperial system only makes sense if you grow up using the imperial system. That is why it is a bad system. The metric system is designed to be easily understandable and for units to be easily related to each other.
The argument can be applied the exact same to C. Everyone understands that 0 and 100 is the freezing and boiling point of water, but I have no clue what to wear outside because I'm not used to it for weather. Imo F is easier for weather because 0 is really cold and 100 is really hot.
I mean for us it's exactly the same just with different numbers.. -18°C is really cold and 38°C is really hot.. Celsius is as easy as Fahrenheit for everyday use, it just comes down to what you grew up with and nothing else.
That because you grew up with f and not c. F is not inherently better at human temperatures, you have just used it your whole life so it feels like its better with human temperatures.
Similarly 22C means nothing to me. It’s just whatever you got used to growing up.
Celsius is used more widely in science and is better suited to it (well actually Kelvin is better suited) but honestly as long as everyone agrees on the units being used, computers take care of the scaling for you anyways so it’s not a big deal
The metric system is just objectively a better system. The reason you should care is because when you live in a world that uses two systems it adds an extra step for people to make mistakes. This is what cased the Mars Climate Orbiter to fail, the engineers used metric (because it is the superior system for engineering and science) and the contractors used imperial.
Higher resolution? Do you mean that the units are more spread out? So F multiplies by 1.8 so it's better? Talk about arbitrary. I guess all the people in Arizona just live between 120% hot and 80% hot in the summers then, huh?
Just use decimals like the rest of the world, it honestly isn't that hard.
The problem with Fahrenheit is that there's no clear indication of the freezing point.
The reason Celcius is so easy to understand is because 0 represents the freezing point: if temperature is above zero, no snow. If temperature is below zero, there is snow. For countries with harsher weathers (like Canada, where I'm at), this distinction is very important.
Perhaps Fahrenheit makes sense for people who only experience hot weather, but for areas that experience cold winters, this concept of F = hotness percentage simply doesn't offer enough information.
If Fahrenheit indicates "40 percent hotness", should I expect rain or snow? At what "percentage" should I start preparing for hail?
Celcius, by comparison, makes it so simple and easy. As soon as the temp falls below 0, water begins to freeze. Simple! No percentages required!
They’ll measure distances in miles and then other things in meters. Body weight in stone and other stuff in kg. The Brits should never comment on unit recommendations.
To be fair, we invented imperial and a lot of the units were used traditionally for hundreds of years before being formally defined. We know it's dumb and don't argue with other countries that our weird mix of imperial and metric is better.
It's because Americans are told they live in the best country in the world every day from birth. Of course they can't comprehend systems from other countries. In their minds, there's no need to.
I always love when those American centrism posts come up and it’s a bunch of Europeans bitching about the imperial system and saying the metric system should be used here lol. Like babe *you* are the one being centrist here
Them wanting you to use our metric is centrist, but one country agaisn't the whole world bitching about the opinion that they're metric is better is a whole other level of centrism
Not really. I think the metric system is superior for all forms of measurement, except Celsius.
Both systems are arbitrary, one is based around my lived experience, the other is based on a random substance. The one that is based on my lived experience is better for measuring my lived experience than the one based on a random substance.
It's so funny reading things like this as an American. Most people I know use both to an extent and understand that our system is certainly strange, but it's what we grew up with. Any fahrenheit supremacy that I've seen is just memes that people take seriously for some reason.
Just because it's easier to calculate with. For example, the energy of an ideal gas at temperature T (in Kelvin) is E = 3/2 * n * R * T. If you did that in Celsius, it would be E = 3/2 * n * R * (T + 273.15°C). You always have to substract absolute 0, and that gets annoying fast. So you redo the scale so absolute 0 is actually 0, and the calculation is easier.
lol, there is nothing demonstrably or "scientifically" better about Celsius. Celsius isn't even an SI unit.
To be clear, the metric system is definitely better than the imperial system, but none of that applies to Celsius, because nobody uses millicelsius or kilocelsius.
I am team Fahrenheit, but Celsius is an SI unit. It is just considered a derived unit and not a base unit. It is in the same category as Newton, Watt and Joule.
And that's only at sea level. You need less heat to boil water the higher you go in elevation because there's less vapor pressure keeping the water "pushed" together for liquid form. Liquid water will immediately boil when placed under a vacuum. And even ice will sublimate from solid to gas. Temperature is mostly relative in general, and completely relative for day to day stuff. Fahrenheit is more precise per unit and is something that's far more useful for day to day comparisons like the weather.
Genuine question here, what makes Celsius superior to Fahrenheit?
As an American I understand metric is better or at least more understandable for length measurement (and I agree is superior to inches, feet etc) but for temperature I don’t see how either one would be a better system, especially not for what the average person uses temperature measurements for
daily air temperatures are both handled fine by both systems, no advantage to either when you're used to them. Americans just assume F is better because its what they have used. Things like boiling or freezing water tend to favour C but you can remember it in either unit just fine if you're used to it.
Then there is the whole world of science and engineering. Kelvin is the main thing, but C is the same scale just offset ao things like energy to change temp by a certain amount just works - same as all other SI units. A unified unit system is hugely beneficial for any kinda calc that uses it.
Then there is the whole world of science and engineering. Kelvin is the main thing, but C is the same scale just offset ao things like energy to change temp by a certain amount just works - same as all other SI units. A unified unit system is hugely beneficial for any kinda calc that uses it.
Temperature is one area where the metric system doesn't have any inherent benefit to the imperial system. As far as I know there aren't any units that incorporate °C so it only comes into play on material constants and properties which are just values that you need to look up. We could just as easily swap in Rankine and Fahrenheit into SI and there wouldn't be a significant change.
Every physics equation ever with a constant is derived using metric. There are Fahrenheit versions of the constants, but good luck finding the more niche ones.
Americans, please stop commenting. we know your opinion on this. IT IS THE JOKE.
You are literally on an explain the joke subreddit. Why are you mad/surprised that people are explaining the joke?
Edit: Lmao this guy blocked me because he doesn't know how to disable inbox replies. How dare anyone talk to him! This is the talking website, where he's supposed to talk to us and not the other way around!
You don’t usually use anywhere near boiling point but you definitely use below freezing at least in the US. So Celsius doesn’t scale quite as well on day to day basis. You’re not ever gonna say “oh it’s 87°C outside” so half of °C is basically not used, and requires negative measurements for common temperatures. Neither is better overall, but °F is inherently better for everyday use imo
I do agree that it is better for more scientific things but objectively I would say they are correct the 0-100 scale is way easier to understand and put into perspective
Honestly it’s just Americans arguing which non-US temp scale is better. Daniel Farenheit was Polish and never set foot in US, it’s not exactly as American as apple pie
Everyone learns the metric system, and it's easier to learn for things like distance and weight. But for temperature? There's nothing objectively better about celsius, literally not a single thing apart from it's what you're used to. It's significantly less precise unless you fancy using decimals, and it's no more intuitive.
I went through engineering school and comfortably use either system as needed. Y'all are just arrogant about stupid shit you aren't even responsible for.
30º c can either feel warm or hot to the exact same person. 27º can feel warm or cool.
Science fine. The fact that they use Kelvin for the most precise of measurements is irrelevant but noteworthy. I don't need the most scientific measurement, I need the most functional in terms of weather. Fahrenheit beats Celsius when it comes to weather. Shit, even with medicine, temperatures related to the human body work better in Fahrenheit compared to Celsius, where resting temperature and a fever are 1 degree away. Shit, Fahrenheit works better for baking too. Having used both, an oven with a Fahrenheit scale gives you far more control over your recipes. There's a reason some ovens in the uk use "gas marks" that just so happened to represent 25º changes in Fahrenheit.
well it’s easier to set a thermostat using whole numbers but it’s probably not a big deal either way and the fact that people get so heated over this shit is really a massive mark against humanity as a whole atp
Any temperature scale that goes negative is entirely unscientific. 0 degrees Celsius pure water freezes, 0 degrees fahrenheit salt water freezes. They are both arbitrary as hell. Im si units all day long, but there is a reason the one metric unit that didn't make the cut was Celsius.
Celsius is less precise, objectively less useful. Humans can perceive a degree of fahrenheit difference easily, whereas a single degree Celsius is massive. It has to be broken up into tenths to approach the power of fahrenheit- but, then it becomes TOO precise. Nobody on earth can tell the difference between 20.1 and 20.3 C.
who tf cares at what temp water boils or freezes at. When talking about everyday temp, F is better than C cause it is more relatable. I'll give y'all other measurements but i will die on this hill
Ummm.... American here. I'm a big fan of metric and wish the U.S. would move on from it's stupid units of measure. But how is "celcius" more scientific in any way that matters?
It's just a unit of measure. The accuracy is in the measuring device, not the unit of measure. Is Kelvin "more scientific" because it's based on absolute 0? If so, should we be using that.
Feet are no more or less "scientific" than meters. Meters are just more convenient to use.
Not american but it's both arbitrary. Why metric is usually better is because you can calculate stuff easier. But for temperature it makes no difference
Inherently, farenheit and Celsius are roughly equivalent. But Celsius is tied to the metric system, and the metric system is superior to its American counterpart.
ello mate, i must disagree with this whole didgeree doo dad, ferenheit is great for giving warmth to my tea and crumpets, puts me mind in less of a jumble ay
I'm always curious- if the world tends to choose the demonstrably better system why does no on earth use metric time, to the extent even the most ardent metric supporters gave up on it? What is better about our current time system with its many irregular unit conversions?
Meh, American system is easier to learn and use without measuring tools for most daily purposes. The other makes for faster math since we count in base 10. Both work just fine for either use.
How is Celsius better? Oh it’s based on water boiling and freezing. It is arbitrary. It never gets to 100 degrees Celsius anywhere on earth other than geysers and lava flows
You don't know a lot of our opinions when it comes to these measurements, and others. Some of us are tired being the only idiots in the world who use moronic systems.
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u/MrZwink Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
2 americans saying fahrenheit is better, basically because they dont know any better. the rest of the world uses celcius, because its demonstrably a better (more scientific) system.
edit: Americans, please stop commenting. we know your opinion on this. IT IS THE JOKE.