So my dad calls me today from Erie, Pa., and asks me, "How would
you say that the temperature is 14 degrees below zero?" "Well, I
would say it's fucking cold, Dad." "No no, would you say it was
'minus 14 degrees' or 'negative 14 degrees'?" My dad believes
that people of an older generation say "minus" and younger
people tend to say "negative" when referring to the temperature
outside. He's afraid that when his generation dies, the proper
term will fade away forever and the world will refer to the
temperature incorrectly. Please help clear up this generational
struggle! Going by the book, your dad is probably right. On the
one hand, both terms are equally mathematical; algebra isn't the
problem here. But temperature is screwy. We pick an arbitrary
scale at which water freezes at 32 degrees, and temperatures
below zero suddenly have no great meaning. The fact that it's 20
degrees outside doesn't mean that it's twice as warm as when
it's 10 degrees. Convert to Celsius and those numbers have
entirely different im