I have always hated this argument. If that were the case, then 50 would be the most comfortable temperature and it’s not. This scale is about 20 degrees off since most everybody prefers a temperature of about 70 F.
That makes the assumption that comfortable is at the center of weather patterns (which is what fahrenheit was made to describe), and there’s no real reason that that would be the case. The average temperature worldwide is in the 50’s, not in the 70’s. Likewise, 0° F is more similar frequency to 100° F than it is to 140° F, which tends to be an extreme only for the hottest places on earth. 50°-ish is the center of the temperature scale, it’s just that most people prefer temperatures that are abnormally warm
But that’s the same argument that people use against Celsius: “the freezing and boiling points of water is an arbitrary scale, I prefer Fahrenheit because it’s more human centric” (Even though it’s not). What you’re saying is equally as arbitrary, the average temperatures of the planet as a whole is still not a human centric frame of reference.
They’re both arbitrary, the only scale that has any claim on not being arbitrary is Kelvin, but I don’t care to get a weather forecast that it’s going to be 294° tomorrow. it makes sense to put the values I use in my everyday life inside of a reasonable range, and the thing I use temperature for the most is weather, so I like using a scale that puts weather in that range. If I was a chemist or had some job where the boiling point of water was more relevant to me then I might care that it sits at a nice number like 100, but the way my life is now it just doesn’t seem relevant
I have always hated this argument. If that were the case, then 50 would be the most comfortable temperature and it’s not. This scale is about 20 degrees off since most everybody prefers a temperature of about 70 F.
That makes the assumption that comfortable is at the center of weather patterns (which is what fahrenheit was made to describe), and there’s no real reason that that would be the case. The average temperature worldwide is in the 50’s, not in the 70’s. Likewise, 0° F is more similar frequency to 100° F than it is to 140° F, which tends to be an extreme only for the hottest places on earth. 50°-ish is the center of the temperature scale, it’s just that most people prefer temperatures that are abnormally warm
But that’s the same argument that people use against Celsius: “the freezing and boiling points of water is an arbitrary scale, I prefer Fahrenheit because it’s more human centric” (Even though it’s not). What you’re saying is equally as arbitrary, the average temperatures of the planet as a whole is still not a human centric frame of reference.
They’re both arbitrary, the only scale that has any claim on not being arbitrary is Kelvin, but I don’t care to get a weather forecast that it’s going to be 294° tomorrow. it makes sense to put the values I use in my everyday life inside of a reasonable range, and the thing I use temperature for the most is weather, so I like using a scale that puts weather in that range. If I was a chemist or had some job where the boiling point of water was more relevant to me then I might care that it sits at a nice number like 100, but the way my life is now it just doesn’t seem relevant
for now
I think of 70 like a C “average” in school 🙂