I quote from a short article in Thursday's Metro newspaper (given away free in
London; page 9, orange
callout box):
"EU leaders have endorsed a commitment to ensure global temperatures do
not rise more than 2°C (36°F) above pre-industrial levels."
This is a good example of how people today really do not need degrees F,
as they really don't understand how to use it. In this example, they
needed to give the equivalent RISE in temperature, not the equivalent
temperature, but someone saw the 2°C and just went and converted it to
its F equivalent on the thermometer without thinking about the meaning.
This is one example of where giving a F conversion to a C temp actually
can cause confusion, especially to those who claim not to understand
degrees C. Also it shows that many people really do not understand degrees F
any more -- if they did, they would not make such a silly mistake.
I don't use Fahrenheit at all and I would not have bothered to give a F
equivalent in the article, but I can see that what they gave was wrong and it
shows a good understanding of metric but a lack of understanding of imperial.
One more reason why F must be consigned to history ASAP and
we should use only degrees C.
--
David King
