“What is that in Celsius?” asked my European coworker on the other end of an international conference call. We had started the call by saying how cold it was in the Northeast, -21°F exactly, so I was already asking Google to convert it for me.
“About -30°C,” I replied, not missing a beat.
That’s when I asked myself, “Why do I still use the Fahrenheit temperature scale?” I decided to switch the units on my favorite weather app and take the plunge to Celsius.
“Isn’t switching to Celsius hard for an old person like you?” you might ask. Well, I know that water freezes at about 0°C and boils at about 100°C. Also, I was already accustomed to using Celsius at work, so I knew that room temperature is about 25°C, at least for a warm room. (I allow my house to stay much cooler in Winter.)
Given these three F-C equivalents, it’s easy to deduce temperatures that lie between 32°F (0°C) and 77°F (25°C) by using ratios. For example, 12°C, a temperature that is halfway between 0°C and 25°C, is also halfway between 32°F and 77°F, and that’s 55°F. Likewise, the “quarter points” are 6°C (44°F) and 18°C (66°F), a typical room temperature in Winter.
Below 0°C, I rely on the fact that for every one degree change in Celsius, there is a 1.8° change in Fahrenheit. As well, for every 2°C change, we experience a 3.6°F change. So -4°C would be about 7°F below 32°F, or 25°F.
On the upper end of the weather temperature scale, you might get a 35°C forecast, which is 10°C higher than room temperature, or 18°F above 77°F, or 95°F, which (unfortunately) my European coworkers experienced recently.
Have you guessed that I dislike warm weather?
I’m not sure I’ll bother using Celsius in cooking or baking. First, if I change the units on the oven, my wife will be very upset. But then I’d also have to convert all the recipes we’ve accumulated. I don’t see any point in that.
So will you also switch the units in your weather app from Fahrenheit to Celsius?
No comments:
Post a Comment