Celsius Needs a Redesign (2019)
You know that there&#x27;s something seriously wrong with this article just by reading the following quote:<p><i>&quot;Imagine turning up your radio one notch and having the volume increase 50 decibels—NPR ASMR to full death metal. It’s jarring. Similarly, Celsius as a scale, has decided to measure a huge range of temperatures inside it’s famous book ends. Freezing point to boiling point of water—these are not habitable human temperatures and a makes a jump in one degree a large environmental change.&quot;</i><p>50 dB represents a power ratio of 100,000:1 or an amplitude (say voltage) ratio of 316.2:1. Fahrenheit to Celsius is only a bit over 2:1. If this is not gross exaggeration then I don&#x27;t know what is! Frankly, this statement is past exaggeration, it&#x27;s in the world of fantasy. Check the figures here for yourself: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Decibel" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Decibel</a><p>I&#x27;ve read many such comments before but not one so outrageously stupid.<p>This article follows the typical <i>Celsius&#x2F;Metric envy</i> of many Fahrenheit (US and Imperial) users who&#x27;ve not come to terms with the modern world. This is a &#x27;disease&#x27; of certain parts of the Anglophone world—specifically the US, Canada and the UK with the US being the standout (it has the full-blown disease par excellence)—for at least Canada and the UK have dual standards—Imperial and Metric (backwards they may be but at least they acknowledge the metric system) even if they do not use it (miles&#x2F;hour being the norm!).  Tut, tut, tut!<p>The US is unique by having a system that doesn&#x27;t even fully equate to the Imperial system. Over the years this  
has led to some monumental booboos such as aircraft crossing the Atlantic and crashing before reaching Europe because the US gallon is smaller than the Imperial one. Oh and I can&#x27;t but help rub in NASA&#x27;s monumental fuck-up over the Hubble space Telescope mirror because someone wasn&#x27;t thinking Metric <i>(remember science IS metric, everything is in SI units).</i><p>Just take five minutes to take a look at this unholy—unmitigated mess:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;United_States_customary_units" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;United_States_customary_units</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Imperial_units" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Imperial_units</a><p>These grossly outdated measurement systems have their roots in the ancient Winchester UK units that go back to the middle ages—even to the time of the Norman Conquest. Just take a look at them: what&#x27;s a rod, chain, perch, minim, US shot, US gill, US cup, teaspoon, stone, foot-poundal and so on? I&#x27;ll bet most US citizens haven&#x27;t a clue what these measurements are let alone know how to convert between them.  Nothing is consistent about them, nothing is logical—it&#x27;s a total unadulterated mess! Even a horse&#x27;s height is measured in an antiquated measurement called hands (4&quot;).<p>OK, you can easily say I&#x27;ve a damn hide to criticize both the Imperial and US Customary Units and please feel free to do so (no doubt there will be downvotes from the counties that use them). However let me say this in my defense. During the formative years of my education I knew nothing of the Metric System—that was until I got to high school and learned about them in science. Even then, I had to learn dual systems: the Imperial System and <i>both</i> Metric Systems—the Gaussian&#x2F;CGS System and the MKS (now SI) System and we had to convert between them (even in school examinations). Having to learn both system thoroughly and learning Newton&#x27;s laws in foot-poundals, slugs etc. was unnecessary torture. It was clear to every kid in the school that did science that the Metric System was just so much better (and easier to learn) than the antiquated Imperial System.<p>Back to day-to-day existence. Temperature on the radio&#x2F;TV etc. was always in Fahrenheit, weight was in stone, pounds and ounces, liquids were pints, quarts, and gallons (Imperial not US), etc. Even some pharmaceutical formulations were still in the apothecaries&#x27; system, scruples, grains, etc. Anyway, the light dawned and the huge yoke of Imperial Units was lifted from the country in a conversion that took nearly two decades but in practice it was much quicker than that.  In the beginning, even a 12&quot; Imperial rule was banned and only 30cm ones could be bought, this was relaxed after everyone was used to the metric system.  <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Metrication_in_Australia" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Metrication_in_Australia</a><p>Thus, I am a true veteran of both systems and I know well what it takes to convert and I can assure all of you in the US, UK and Canada that it isn&#x27;t really that difficult.<p>This article is an excuse for a lazy existence—one that is unprepared to the yard work. It&#x27;s like playing  music by chords instead of learning individual notes or reading the score, what the author is saying is just subterfuge.<p>One must initially go hard at conversion, as one sees the negative effects of the UK&#x27;s soft approach to metrication. Here, we get BBC health programs (Trust Me I&#x27;m a Doctor, etc.) and everyone&#x27;s weight is measured in stones and pounds. These days, no one here younger than my generation <i>even knows what a stone weight is!</i>  They&#x27;re totally perplexed (I&#x27;m surprised that the BBC doesn&#x27;t mention conversions for metrified markets).<p>That said, nothing is perfect and that goes for the Metric System. I grant the author some credence when it comes to certain measurements. Personally, I preferred the Gaussian&#x2F;CGS units as they are—in my opinion only—easier to use than the MKS system. For example ergs often seems a more practical size than joules (which are often too big), but if you ask the younger generation they will say that I&#x27;m old-fashioned (which I acknowledge), and anyway they&#x27;d almost certainly wouldn&#x27;t know what an erg was.<p>Anyway, it&#x27;s essentially peace at last. I&#x27;ll never again have to consult those horrible Imperial tables on the back covers of all our school exercise books to know how many chains, perches, poundals etc. go into this or that.<p>If the author of this story could only see how ridiculous he looks in the metrified world then he&#x27;d be really embarrassed.<p><i>[BTW, there&#x27;s nothing wrong with dual systems, that is keeping one for colloquial usage. And there are still some exceptions (30&quot; TV for instance) but they&#x27;re few and far between.  When I go to a lumber (here timber) yard and meet a guy my age I&#x27;ll ask for some 4x2&quot; (US: 2x4&quot;) and not 100x50 mm. Equally, for anyone younger I&#x27;ll automatically revert to 100x50 mm to avoid confusion.  Let&#x27;s face it 4x2 or 2x4 slips off the tongue a damn side faster doesn&#x27;t it? ;-) ]</i>