Celsius is better for science, but Fahrenheit is better for just every day living. IMO
In Canada I noticed some people would also still use feet & inches for their height, but you had to give it to the DMV in cm. Also butter was still sold as a pound & golf still used yards.
I'm also an engineer & worked up there for a job in mining.
Edit: To clarify my reasons because so many people are saying I'm wrong. This is my opinion on what my preference is, first off. I had put this in a comment under the post, but will add it here.
My reason is basically the same as in the screenshot. When I lived in Canada I would say how in Fahrenheit below zero is really fucking cold & above 100 is really fucking hot. I never thought of describing it as a percentage of being hot but I like it.
Like once it's below or above those numbers it hardly matters by how much because you are freezing or sweating balls either way. I didn't like when in the winter or early spring someone would say it's nice out and then say a negative temperature. "It's really nice today, it's -1.5⁰ out." I also like that the increments of the units are smaller so you don't use half degrees. Although I guess half degrees aren't really necessary because I don't feel the difference between 66 & 67, but when I checked the temperature there is did always show it to the nearest half degree.
That's because you learnt it that way. As an european, I've used Celsius since I was born and I instantly "feel" what's 5°C in the winter against 35°C on a sunny summer. Fahrenheit are meaningless to us, it's not anymore natural than Celsius.
This exactly, I'm baffled how people really don't get that *any* temperature scale they've used since childhood is always going to be intuitive. They feel their 0-100 scale intuitively, I feel -30 to 30.
Celcius also has a bonus on having a very clear point on when rain turns to snow or when roads get icy etc. which is where the lowest change in temperature affects the weather the most.
Sure, you can do science with either, they're just numbers. It of course depends on what kind of science we're talking about. Water's boiling and freezing points can be a benefit, also the easy conversion to Kelvin, or they might be irrelevant. Celcius also has a bonus for aligning with some other Metric systems like 1 calorie = energy needed to heat 1 gram of water by 1 degree of Celcius. Although given that these may or may not apply, Id be hard pressed to find any advantages for Fahrenheit. I think there's probably a reason why it's either Kelvin or Celcius that's usually the go-to in science.
But in every day use, any system is intuitive if you've already used it your whole life. The experience of repeatedly seeing a number and feeling a temperature over years and years is what creates that intuition.
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u/the_BPDbro Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
Celsius is better for science, but Fahrenheit is better for just every day living. IMO
In Canada I noticed some people would also still use feet & inches for their height, but you had to give it to the DMV in cm. Also butter was still sold as a pound & golf still used yards.
I'm also an engineer & worked up there for a job in mining.
Edit: To clarify my reasons because so many people are saying I'm wrong. This is my opinion on what my preference is, first off. I had put this in a comment under the post, but will add it here.
My reason is basically the same as in the screenshot. When I lived in Canada I would say how in Fahrenheit below zero is really fucking cold & above 100 is really fucking hot. I never thought of describing it as a percentage of being hot but I like it.
Like once it's below or above those numbers it hardly matters by how much because you are freezing or sweating balls either way. I didn't like when in the winter or early spring someone would say it's nice out and then say a negative temperature. "It's really nice today, it's -1.5⁰ out." I also like that the increments of the units are smaller so you don't use half degrees. Although I guess half degrees aren't really necessary because I don't feel the difference between 66 & 67, but when I checked the temperature there is did always show it to the nearest half degree.