h a l f b a k e r yYeah, I wish it made more sense too.
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The genesis of this idea was a story by
Kevin Kling on NPR yesterday (see link).
He observed that in England people use
Farenheit for when it is really hot, e.g.,
"it's bloody hot. Almost 100", and Celsius
for describing cold weather, e.g., "its cold,
like one below zero."
I propose
combining the two so there is
one scale that has freezing of water as 0
and mas-o-menos human body
temperature for 100. However, a problem
is that if you divide this in equal size
degrees, you end up with a degree that is
smaller than a Farenheit degree, namely,
.68 of a Farenheit degree or .37 of a
Celsius degree. The problem with that is
that statements like it is one below zero
no longer means something like -1
Celsius. And even "its 101" actually is only
100.68 deg F (not as big an issue).
To remedy that problem I propose a scale
where the degree size varies from 0 to
100 such that the first degree is the size
of 1 Celsius degree and the 100th degree
is the size of a Farenheit degree. That
way, you can still have freezing water and
body temperatures as end-points, and
have the degree size to be about right at
each end-point. In between, the degree
size changes smoothly such that the sum
of the 100 degrees equal 68 Farenheit
degrees. Someone more mathematically
inclined can come up with the formula. It
should be some sort of hyperbola with the
values f(1) = 1.8, f(100) = 1, and a
minimum around f(50). Sum f(i) = 68. I'll
put my best math guy on figuring it out.
Cum-se cum-sa?
http://mas-o-menos....s.com/lyrics/69207/ [2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 06 2005]
[link]
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Just what the world needs...ANOTHER scale for temperature. (-) |
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what [IT] said. This Kevin Klingon person is obviously very old to have observed the metric/imperial conversion in the UK. Ignore his rantings about the weather - he's obviously trying to change the subject so you don't notice he's 380 years old. Get the secret of immortality from him, quick! |
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What does mas-o-menos mean? |
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Just read this properly... are we talking about a scale with a unit which decreases in size as temperature increases? In that case, how hot is the sun? |
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mas o menos = more or less, give or take a few. |
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moomintroll no habla español? |
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Nein. Wie komme ich am besten zum bahnhof, bitte? |
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[moomintroll] Did you learn from Deutsch Heuter, that is about the only phrase I can remember apart from |
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'Frau Bauer ist auf dein poste' |
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Yeah, I think that was it's name, [sid]. You must have been in the advanced class - I can only remember the one phrase. |
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Make absolute zero (-273.15 °C) -1000 °X and put the triple point of water at 0 °X (like Celsius), thatd make 100 °X about 27.315 °C, body temperature (i.e. ca. 100 °F) around 135 °X. |
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For medical purposes youd rather want a scale that has its zero point between 36 and 37 °C and a degree size of about 0.1 K. |
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Anyhow, Im fine with the Celsius scale. |
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The Kelvin scale makes more sense -
zero is as cold as it is possible for a
thing to be. So, it really is a
meaningfull measure of temperature.
Oddly, Kevin Kling is an anagram of
King Kelvin. Which is of no significance
whatever. |
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This idea does have some (slight) scientific merit, since the heat capacity of water does increase with temperatureby nearly a factor of 4 at 400C. But it doesnt vary much between freezing and boiling. |
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How about a log scale, based on human perception? |
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