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  • As someone who moved to the US later in life, I learned to use fahrenheit because there's no way to talk to anyone about the weather or cooking otherwise.

    If you need to do the same one day, don't bother trying to convert in your head. Just learn the numbers conversationally. Familiarize yourself with how the weather feels with the number weather app shows.

    I can't convert at all but I can use both C and F in conversation because one rarely needs exact numbers anyway. You learn the ballparks pretty quick.

    • I find the conversion between the two easy enough to do it my head.

      This isn't exact but is close enough for conversations and 99% of my needs.

      (Temp in F - 30) / 2

      Examples

      70F:
      70F - 30 = 40
      40 / 2 = 20C
      
      10F:
      10F - 30 = -20
      -20 / 2 = -10C
      
      

      The actual number is 21 / -12 but this is close enough for me 99.9% of the time

      • When you actually need to convert, sure. For conversation, try it my way. It'll be noticeably more efficient.

    • Isn't Fahrenheit a "feel" temperature unit anyway? Once you need precision (science), even Americans switch to Celsius/Kelvin.

    • This, for sure. I live in the US and wanted to learn to understand Celsius so I switched my phone to use it. Internalizing a system works where translating/converting does not. I quickly learned that I feel comfortable in temperatures in the 20s. Since I feel comfortable in Fahrenheit temps in the upper 60s to mid 70s I can guess what the conversion is for most temps, but I don't have to do it to understand that I like how 22 C feels.

      Similarly, if you're traveling and having to use a foreign currency I prefer to establish an idea in my head of cheap, reasonable, expensive than stopping to convert every price exactly. A "reasonable price" is relative to the item and location, of course, and should also affect my perspective.

      Absorbing a new system by this method works fairly easily for temperatures and money, but less so for other measurements. I don't have as fine-tuned a sense of what ounces, pounds, or grams feel like as I do units of temperature. And I am always adding or subtracting 12 to understand time when expressed as 13h and up.

      During the brief period when the US was encouraging metric system understanding there were many highway speed limit signs expressed as 55 mph / 88 kph. Every time I need to make that conversion I think of 5/8 because of that sign. And I usually just make guesstimates that work well enough.

      I like learning new things. The generation before me in my family turned off their brains long ago and now suffer dementia. I work to keep my mind active. Learning other units of measure is one example.

      Finally I'll say that I WISH I could get to a point of understanding languages this way without translation.

    • Terrific insight. I had often wondered if that alone would assist with adoption if it became standard in the US. That, or we would just print it in two formats all the time..

    • Thank you, this is a a great idea! I've found these common temperatures online, in case anyone wants to learn them:

      Description Celsius (ยฐC) Fahrenheit (ยฐF)
      Absolute Zero -273.15 -459.67
      Freezing Point of Water (at sea level) 0 32
      Average Room Temperature 20-22 68-72
      Body Temperature 37 98.6
      Average Summer Day 25-30 77-86
      Heat of a Desert 40-50 104-122
      Boiling Point of Water (at sea level) 100 212
      Highest Recorded Earth Temperature 56.7 134
      • Average Summer Day 25-30 77-86

        See, that's the problem with these "Fahrenheit is more intuitive" arguments. They are catered to a very specific country with a very specific climate. For me, 25-30 ยบC is an average late spring day.

131 comments