I recently read South: The Endurance Expedition by Sir Ernest Shackleton, and a couple of times Shackleton used a turn of phrase I remember my grandfather using. If the temperature was 20º Fahrenheit Shackleton would describe it as “twelve degrees of frost” meaning twelve degrees below zero.
It’s not a user-friendly system if you have to read the thermometer and then do some mental arithmetic to determine just how cold the weather is. Several times he mentions “minus temperatures” such as 21º below zero, which would be 53º below freezing. Also, Shackleton was a seafarer so he occasionally mentions distances or lengths of rope as so many cables length, and ocean depths always in fathoms. I don’t feel any nostalgia for these old units. Best wishes, Peter Goodyear, Melbourne, Australia e-mail: [email protected] = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > On 28 Jul 2020, at 15:29, Carleton MacDonald <[email protected]> wrote: > > I don’t think humans can tell the difference anyway if it is less than 1 °C. > > I had a friend who was into Ye Olde Englishe stuff (he was a huge Gilbert and > Sullivan fiend, among other things). He had the same argument that Fahrenheit > is more precise. Well, so too is 18.4 °C. He liked obscure English > measurements because he liked obscure English stuff generally. > > Carleton > > On 2020-07-27, 21:46, "USMA on behalf of Michael Payne" > <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > on behalf of [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > > I like the way people in the US says Fahrenheit is more precise, then say > it’s going to be in the 80’s today whereas in the rest of the world we say > it’s going to be 30 today. I've noticed that in the US weather forecast on > TV, the temperature around a city is all over the place (errors in placement > of thermometers?) > https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wunderground.com%2Fwundermap%3Flat%3D39.03%26lon%3D-77.4%26zoom%3D8%26radar%3D1%26wxstn%3D0&data=02%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C7189c634e4bf4d7b985008d832edb4cd%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C637315343819914816&sdata=9EZudyiN9inf98DyC0PKRXLKpqxqFQimWEHhilN5ekY%3D&reserved=0 > > <https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wunderground.com%2Fwundermap%3Flat%3D39.03%26lon%3D-77.4%26zoom%3D8%26radar%3D1%26wxstn%3D0&data=02%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C7189c634e4bf4d7b985008d832edb4cd%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C637315343819914816&sdata=9EZudyiN9inf98DyC0PKRXLKpqxqFQimWEHhilN5ekY%3D&reserved=0> > whereas in Europe cities 100 km from each other may only be 1°C different > https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.meteociel.fr%2Fobservations-meteo%2Ftemperatures.php&data=02%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C7189c634e4bf4d7b985008d832edb4cd%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C637315343819914816&sdata=5KatdfTqG8XS6Uz3Od%2FkEGhnItViMeB3SSPysKvEZjs%3D&reserved=0 > > <https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.meteociel.fr%2Fobservations-meteo%2Ftemperatures.php&data=02%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C7189c634e4bf4d7b985008d832edb4cd%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C637315343819914816&sdata=5KatdfTqG8XS6Uz3Od%2FkEGhnItViMeB3SSPysKvEZjs%3D&reserved=0> > When I typed this Toulouse 100 km south of me is 20°C and Valence d’Agen > near me is 19°C. > > Mike Payne > > >> On 25 Jul 2020, at 04:07, Edward Schlesinger <[email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: >> >> During the winter months sometimes the temperature drops but in the summer >> months it rises. Google translate is good. Afrikaans comes out of Dutch and >> the other tribal languages. >> >> On Fri, Jul 24, 2020 at 6:07 PM Pierre Abbat <[email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: >>> On Friday, July 24, 2020 9:14:36 AM EDT Martin Vlietstra wrote: >>> > A quick note about my experience in South Africa. Please read it >>> > carefully: >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > Ek het in Suid Afrika groot geword. In Johannesburg, tydens die >>> > wintermaande dal die temperatuur soms tot -5°C maar in die somermaande >>> > styg >>> > did tot 35°C. >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > Did you understand what I wrote? Probably not, but I suspect that most >>> > Brits >>> > could pick out three items – "Johannesburg", "-5°C" and "35°C" so they >>> > could hazard a guess what I was writing about. The British are probably >>> > as >>> > monolingual as the Americans, but how many Americans would understand >>> > "-5°C" and "35°C"? This is a very good reason to use the International >>> > System of Units. >>> >>> I can also pick out "wintermaande", "temperatuur", and "somermaande". >>> Adding >>> what I know of German, I can understand everything except "tydens" (which I >>> suspect has something to do with tide or time), "dal", "soms", "maar" >>> (which I >>> happen to know from the knappe kapper tonguetwister), and "styg did" (I >>> suspect that "did" does not mean "did"). I am not monolingual, but my >>> second >>> and third native languages are Romance, which doesn't help. German is my >>> fourth, and first non-native, language. >>> >>> Pierre >>> -- >>> I believe in Yellow when I'm in Sweden and in Black when I'm in Wales. >>> >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> USMA mailing list >>> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> >>> https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma >>> <https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma> >> _______________________________________________ >> USMA mailing list >> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> >> https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma >> <https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma> > > _______________________________________________ USMA mailing list > [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma > <https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma>_______________________________________________ > USMA mailing list > [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma > <https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma>
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