How about "kelvins" in the mix? The context does not always make the answer obvious.
---- Original message ---- >Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2011 20:19:44 -0400 >From: Bill Hooper <[email protected]> >Subject: [USMA:50182] Does it matter if we specify Celsius? >To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> > > Recently, one of our correspondents (it doesn't > matter who) wrote about temperatures and referred to > values just in "degrees" without specifying Celsius > or Fahrenheit. (See excerpt below.) I know most of > us on this list are sufficiently aware of Celsius > temperature values to know that he must have been > referring to Celsius degrees. My question is > two-fold and I only have a "one-fold" answer (for > myself). > (1) Is it proper, in general, to omit the qualifier > "Celsius" when referring to temperature in Celsius > degrees? > (2) Is it proper to omit "Celsius", when conversing > with those who are thoroughly familiar with Celsius > temperatures, so that there would be no danger > whatsoever that the reader would mistakenly think > the temperatures were Fahrenheit? > I think the answer to #1 should be "no", although I > can imagine arguments to the contrary. > I don't know what I think about #2. Is criticism of > the omission of "Celsius" in this situation > considered unnecessarily picky? Or is the use of > "degrees" alone without specifying "Celsius" so > wrong technically that it should be avoided even > when there is no danger of misunderstanding? > (I admit that the problem disappears if we use > symbols, " ˚C " vs. " ˚F ", but there are always > situations where writing things out is preferable.) > Regards, > Bill Hooper > Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA > > ========================== > Make It Simple; Make It Metric! > ========================== > On Mar 23 , a correspondents wrote: > > In the summer, though, you can have the following > temperature gradients from > the beach in San Francisco: 15 degrees at the > beach, 20 degrees downtown, > 25 degrees across the bay in Berkeley, 30 degrees > east of the hills in > Concord and Walnut Creek, and 35-38 degrees in > Sacramento, over a distance > of only about 120 km. As you can imagine this > causes some REALLY fierce > winds
