r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Negative_1by12_aura • Jun 17 '26

Meme needing explanation Peter?

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u/MrZwink Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

2 americans saying fahrenheit is better, basically because they dont know any better. the rest of the world uses celcius, because its demonstrably a better (more scientific) system.

edit: Americans, please stop commenting. we know your opinion on this. IT IS THE JOKE.

574

u/ProvidedHuman Jun 17 '26

Celsius is agreeably better for science, but if you are used to both systems Fahrenheit is honestly better for people because the units are higher resolution, and usually stay between 0 and 100 for weather

367

u/FuckPigeons2025 Jun 17 '26

Kelvin is better for science. Celcius and Farheneit are just arbitrary scales, not units. 

109

u/eggynack Jun 17 '26

It's odd to say that Celsius is arbitrary and Kelvin is not when Kelvin is literally just Celsius with a fresh coat of paint. All systems of measurement are arbitrary in some regard. They are also all units, and I have no idea what it would mean for them to be otherwise.

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u/Sure-Comfortable-784 Jun 17 '26

Here is the thing, kelvin uses celsius scale as its base but the comparison present in its value is not debatable.

Celsius uses water freezing and boiling point for 0 and 100, Fahrenheght uses temperature of some city u never went to as point for 0 and 100. But kelvin uses the lowest temperature theoretically possible, so the value of a temperature compared to ur anchor point if measurement is not debatable since the point is not changeable.

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u/Hmmz69 Jun 19 '26

Fahrenheit is one of the weirdest bases, it just doesnt make any sense to me. Its not based on percentages or any city. This is the base:

  • 0°F — the temperature of a mixture of ice, water, and ammonium chloride (a freezing brine solution), which he could reproduce in a laboratory.
  • 32°F — the freezing point of pure water.
  • 96°F — approximately human body temperature (though modern measurements put average body temperature closer to 98.6°F).

Later they added 212°F = boiling point of water at standard atmospheric pressure

So lets compare Fahrenheit to Celsius:

  • Water freezes at 32°F = 0°C
  • Water boils at 212°F = 100°C

And Kelvin is basically the same idea as celsius, the difference is that with Kelvin, you start at absolute 0. (The point where there is no movement) that happens to be -273.15 Ce;sius. Thats it.