I'd like to see an experiment where people enter two identical rooms which differ in air temperature by 1 °F and try to say which is warmer and which cooler. But even if many people can discern that difference, a larger 1 °C difference in outdoor temperature is not going to change what you decide to wear. As far as assessing weather conditions for practical matters, a whole degree Celsius is perfectly precise enough. The advantage of having the freezing point at zero, in climates that get that cold, is useful enough in itself as to justify Celsius over Fahrenheit. If you need more precision, use a decimal point.
The author does make an indirect point: if your only use for temperature is to make note of it or set a dial on an oven, it doesn't matter much what scale you use. It's just a number. The practicality of Celsius as part of a rational measurement system may seem somewhat theoretical to the average person. On the other hand, knowing what the rest of the world means when they speak Celsius is a significant plus, unless xenophobia is your thing. Americans just aren't exposed to Celsius all that much. And it doesn't help that the National Weather Service is deeply dyed in °F even though they are fully conversant with °C for anything higher than 2 m above the ground! On Tue, Jul 21, 2020 at 9:45 AM Michael Payne <[email protected]> wrote: > > https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zmescience.com%2Fother%2Ffahrenheit-vs-celsius-did-the-u-s-get-it-right-after-all%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C3e4a7e09fae947399cb008d82ddee688%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C637309782665380332&sdata=e806gESQrvfI628XiLbG1A61wJ5FMI78B0XvYmClj5c%3D&reserved=0 > > > Mike Payne > _______________________________________________ > USMA mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma >
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