I know it may be more convenient for hot weather however 32 degrees for freezing sounds weird. Wouldn't it be easier if the United States were to be less stubborn and adopt to the Celsius scale so the rest of the world would understand?
2006-12-11 13:08:57 · 15 answers · asked by pnatt89 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Weather
Yeah its high time we change...Or our kids will find it hard in tomorrows global stage
2006-12-11 13:11:38 · answer #1 · answered by George Pavladis 2 · 1⤊ 4⤋
The reason 32 Fahrenheit is freezing is the dipstick who invented the scale put marks on the thermometer before he stuck the sucker in freezing water, same for 212 being the boiling point of water. The fact is the Fahrenheit scale has been around much longer the Celsius, and at one point everybody used it, even your country.
Then some clever people decided that an entirely new system based on factors of 10 would be terrific and much easier to use, and most of the world agreed and adopted it. After all who has time to memorize that 4 quarts is a gallon, when 10 deciliters are 1 liter which is also 100 centiliters (by the way, why doesn't anybody ever use centiliters?)
However as an American, I'm somewhat stubborn, and besides do you have any idea what kind of costs we are looking at to convert a country this size over to metric. Some inroads have been made to convert to metric, highway sign sometimes use both distances, and science is almost exclusively taught in metric.
Attempts are issuing a single global standard have historically met with issues, if not we would all be speaking Esperanto. So as soon as you learn Esperanto I'll convert everything to metric.
2006-12-12 07:35:51 · answer #2 · answered by Brian K² 6 · 2⤊ 3⤋
F is believed to be "better" because it gives a wider range of temperature... It is more accurate in the sense that the increments are smaller, meaning each value is more precise. When you are talking about C for air temp, you might only use a range of -10 to 45 or so, about 55 increments. In F, temp commonly ranges from -30 to 110, 150 increments. I agree with you on about other metric measurements though. A base-10 scale just makes more sense that arbitrary conversions.
2006-12-11 18:12:19 · answer #3 · answered by 12 November 3 · 2⤊ 2⤋
Yes. Gabriel Fahrenheit just made 0 the tempreature of a cold day he was making the scale in Danzig. He had 96 as the body tempreature. That is why this scale is so irregular.
2006-12-11 15:56:15 · answer #4 · answered by k_man_su 3 · 0⤊ 3⤋
You see, The Americans and us are different. Like our languages, they have different ways to interpret things too. if you are saying that the Americans are stubborn and do not want to change to degrees celcius, why can't it be the Americans saying that the whole world must use Fahrenheit instead of celcius? You can't take away the spots from a tiger, can you?
2006-12-11 13:39:59 · answer #5 · answered by Az 3 · 3⤊ 3⤋
individuality? i don't know, but it would be a lot easier if we adopted to celsius like the rest of the world.
2006-12-11 14:18:19 · answer #6 · answered by pepsi 2 · 1⤊ 2⤋
it is not as easy as you think it is. yeah, it would definately be a lot easier if we all use the metric system, but for us, converting to the metric system is almost like learning a second language, which most of us finds it very difficult to get used to, like 50 degrees being an extremely hot weather, just sounds weird for most of us.
2006-12-11 14:36:17 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋
Because its a free country and people are free to use the scale that they want? ;-) Or maybe it is just inertia....although I once heard someone blame specific sectors of society....
2006-12-11 14:19:35 · answer #8 · answered by Ron E 5 · 1⤊ 3⤋
for the same reasons that canada uses celsius,or speak french
2006-12-11 14:10:57 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋
The whole industry is using it in U.S. The change won't be easy.
But I do not know why either.
2006-12-11 15:45:11 · answer #10 · answered by chanljkk 7 · 2⤊ 2⤋