That was the practice in Britain when I was a kid (1930s and 1940s). I guess
kids don't have the patience to keep the thermometer under their tongue for
a whole minute. I'm not sure that I ever had a thermometer under my armpit
for as long as ten minutes, though.
Interestingly, on the Fahrenheit scale, the British "standard" (and, I
believe, the British Commonwealth "standard," except for Canada) for
"normal" temperature was 98.4 �F, whereas the U.S. "standard" is 98.6 �F.
It's not a significant difference, of course.
Bill Potts, CMS
Roseville, CA
http://metric1.org [SI Navigator]
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On
> Behalf Of Nikolay O. Malyarov
> Sent: May 12, 2001 21:20
> To: U.S. Metric Association
> Subject: [USMA:12759] Re: body temperature
>
>
> When I was growing up, my mum always measured my body temperature
> by placing
> a thermometre under my armpit for 10 minutes (it was a mercury
> filled one).
> The normal body temperature considered to be 36,6 degrees. At
> the same time
> the magic number 37 was highlighted in black on the scale
> (opposite to black
> for all other numbers).
>
> Cheers (from very metric Latvia),
> Nick
>
> P.S. Marcus, I remember your request. Will definitely look.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On
> Behalf Of James R. Frysinger
> Sent: Sunday, 13 May 2001 4.41
> To: U.S. Metric Association
> Subject: [USMA:12755] Re: body temperature
>
>
> Normal body temperature (oral) is 37 �C. I would say that a whole degree
> above that would be considered significant.
>
> Jim
>
> Mike wrote:
> >
> > I don't know if I've asked this before, so I'll ask again. We've got
> > two digital oral thermometers in the house, one Farenheit and one
> > Celcius. I've got the kids pretty well trained for air temperature, but
> > for body temperature we pretty much rely on the F one, since my wife and
> > I both know when it's just a temp (up to 101 or so), when to give
> > Tylenol (102 to 107), and when to call the doctor (107 or above).
> >
> > Whether or not you agree with my breakdown, what are the comparable
> > points in Celcius? Actually, since I could just convert from Farenheit,
> > I guess I'm really asking for an authoritative reference. I guess I'm
> > expecting some easy to remember numbers, and conversions from Farenheit
> > are unlikely to be those.
> >
> > mike jenkins
>
> --
> Metric Methods(SM) "Don't be late to metricate!"
> James R. Frysinger, CAMS http://www.metricmethods.com/
> 10 Captiva Row e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Charleston, SC 29407 phone/FAX: 843.225.6789
>
