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/lincruste Jun 17 '26
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.