Newly released autopsies show extreme temperatures in state prisons may have contributed to multiple recent deaths behind bars. But the state says heat hasn’t killed any prisoners in more than a decade. A lawsuit challenging Texas prison heat protocols will be heard in federal court on Tuesday.
Metric measuring systems are superior in almost every use case, with the exception, I think, of how temperature feels to us. As arbitrary as Fahrenheit seems, it does seem like a more natural scale to talk about the weather or body temp. The smaller units are nice for these purposes too. 0 being very cold and 100 being very hot feels less arbitrary than -18 and 38, even if celcius is more logical and easier to use for many other things.
Arbitrary feeling is arbitrary on it’s own. I suspect it depends on what you have experienced the most in life (ie, what you grew up with). People growing up with Celsius likely feel the same as people growing up with Fahrenheit, that the other measure doesn’t make much sense and they can just equate what “hot” or “cold” is off a number.
I can’t believe people cared enough to downvote this. People are more comfortable with what they grew up with, what a novel idea. No no, the only system that makes sense is the one that puts 0 at too cold to be comfortable (for some people) and 100 to too warm to be comfortable (for some people). So let me ask this instead. Why 0 to 100? Why not 0 to 144? Why not 0 to 180? Why not 0 to 90? These all have their value, and would have been preferred in various cultures, because that’s what was familiar to them. The range is no less (or more) arbitrary than the markers used to divide it.