OT Fahrenheit

It we were talking just about temperature, people could adapt to either scale. However, in general the metric system is much more sensible.

And had multiple units of measurement for the same thing. Units which are not simply related (as in length: there's feet, inches, yards, rods, fathoms, angstroms, light years and more), so adding to the difficulty of obtaining and using measurements.

Metric has ONE unit for each thing, and a set of related prefixes for large or small multiples of any unit.

Try to buy plywood that isn't measured in mm. That is why you don't see real 3/4" or 1/2" plywood these days It is 16mm and 12mm. I bet if you really measure closely the 4x8 is really 1220mmx2440mm. China is metric you know. Some marine or cabinet grade stuff still really measures 1/2" and 3/4" but you probably won't be buying that at the BORG

People often confuse the advantages of a different system, with the problems encountered in converting to it. These are quite different things.

Notice the complicated "standard" layout of the letter keys on your keyboard (qwerty). This was designed to slow down typing.

You probably have different criteria for swimming pool temperatures too I suppose. I use the metric system for that. 30C and over is to warm and anything below 27 is getting too cold. 25 is freezing.

Actually mine is at 65º right now. That is my usual daytime temperature. At night it goes to 62º In the evening I go up to 67º and in the morning right before we get up, I have it go to 69º

Four things, actually. To the below, add humidity level. We're talking about the differences between "latent" heat and "sensible" heat.

A quick explanation found online...

Any mixture of air and water vapor contains heat. Part of that heat is represented by the "sensible temperature" of the air. (Sensible heat can be measured by a normal thermometer...one with a dry sensing bulb.) The other part of the heat in the air is its "latent" heat. Latent heat is the energy that was used to evaporate the mass of water that the air now contains. So if the air now contains a great deal of water vapor, its latent heat is high. Conversely, if the air is rather dry, its latent heat is low. The sum of the sensible and latent heat of the air is called its "enthalpy", sometimes called its "total heat".

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In my own home, I've found that 70F at 15% humidity will feel chilly. 70F at 55% humidity will feel warm and comfortable. Running a humidifier during a heating season means that one can set thermostats lower and still feel comfortable.

Pastorio

Mine is set to 64F now (morning), 59F at night, and 67F in the=20 evening. If we're cold, it gets cranked up but we usually don't. =20 Sweaters and sweats are the norm. The cats have coats on. ;-)

BTW, our frost line can go down beyond 7' (broken mains down that=20 far).

--=20 Keith

Farenheit is decimal. ;-)

Light years don't exist?

Swimming pools are not standard equipment around here (Michigan, U.S.A., about 42 N latitude), since an outdoor pool can be used only about three months a year.

However, my neighbor had one when I was a kid. When we got in it to open it up for the summer the water was about 20 C. That was pretty nippy, and we didn't stay in very long. I think we let it get up to about 25 C before we really used it, but that was 30 years ago and I didn't bother to commit the details to memory.

We *do* have a hot tub, and we keep it at about 38 or 39 C. It's outdoors and we use it year-round, provided it's not too windy. Just don't ask me about my electric bill.

Cindy Hamilton

The trick is not to convert. It just messes you up and you remain stuck in the old system of measurement. It makes things so much easier. I confess to still preferi to measure fuel efficiency in miles per gallon, because the number of litres per 100 km reverses the significance of the size of the numbers. On the other hand, calculating travel times in metric is much easier. The standard highway speed in 100 kph, so a 500 km trip should take 5 hours. There is no need to go through the extra steps of converting 500 km to 300 miles and dividing by 60.

The seem to be pretty common here in VT (~45N), though I haven't a clue why.

I had a pool when we lived in NY. Depending on the outside temperature, 25C was about the bottom end I'd use it. A few times it got up to 30C, but unless it was 35C outside it was like taking a bath.

Ouch.

What does that next to last sentence say... I don't even want to venture a guess.

Depends on your location relative to thermostat location. Typically thermostats are located on an interior wall. If where you sit is close to an exterior wall where the sun strikes the building, especially if you're sitting near a window, then the radiant heat energy through the wall in that general area can easily cause the temperature there to be

5=BAF or more higher than your thermostat setting (all cats know this intuitively)... place a thermometer on your computer desk. You can try positioning a few small fans throuhgout your house to more evenly distribute air, as your hot air system is not on all the time, probably less than half the time. My office is at a point furthest from the house thermostats (I have two), and that room is at a southwest corner so it receives full sun all day, and has two large windows, which contribute to a greenhouse effect, so where I sit the temperature can be at least 5=BAF warmer than the rest of the house, and that even though my central air system contains an AprilAire filtration system that runs at low speed all year (only switches to high fan when the system calls for AC) so the air throughout my house is constantly circulating, but that does not negate radiant heat from an exterior wall, it's like sitting in front of a heat lamp. I could move my desk to the opposite side of the room so I'll be at the interior wall but I enjoy being able to look out the window too much, so I endure the warmer temperature... my thermostats are set at 69=BAF, the rest of the house is pretty close to that temperature (+/-1=BAF) but my office is at 73=BAF as I type... the sun is very bright right now.

Sheldon

It is snowing and 30 degrees out now so I just chunked another piece of wood on the fire :)

Harry K

My understanding is that 0 F was just the lowest temperature that Farenheit could reliably generate.

Correction: the F scale was based the freezing point of that solution and set at 32 degrees. Then 100 was selected as the normal human body temp, or that is what I heard, not sure). Just why they set the freezing point at 32 vice 0 escapes me.

Harry K

Oops. Correction to the correction. You are correct. I just can't come up with how the 0F mark was arrived at.

Harry K

Chucked

I disagree, even though I have a science background (Physics). Metric is great for doing that sort of thing, but for weather, not so much.

Fahrenheit is good because 100F is really nice and hot, and 0F is really nice and cold. Bounds the temps that humans deal with rather nicely. 100C is outside the range of experience (one hopes) and 0C is coldish. Who cares what temperature water boils at?

The degrees F have nice granularity, so you don't have to deal with fractional ones when describing the weather.

Brian