OFF: Snow, metric propaganda! :-)

[Carl E. Anderson]

On ons 3 dec 1997 13.02 -0500 "Benjamin Cash" <bcash at ESSC.PSU.EDU> wrote:
>>      Actually, I think the most sensible temperature scale would make 0
>> water's freezing point and 100 human body temperature.  That would
create
>> weather reports I could relate to!
>
> Ah yes, but who's body temperature? The average body temperature varies
> considerably, both with time and from person to person. Not to mention
the
> merry hell that this would raise with those of us using temperature for
more
> than 'is it cold out?' ;)

     Fie upon thee :)
     If I may be brutally facist for a moment, the number of people using
temperature measures to determine "Is it cold out?" far outweighs those
using them for anything else :)
     Do we not have computers?  Use them for converting the units :)

     An average average human body temp will do well enough.  I don't
insist on precision :)  98ish suits me as well as 98.6 :)  But there just
are enough _units_ in metric temperatures for my tastes.  Any system which
goes from "annoyingly grim chill" to "needlessly hot" in under 40 units
just wasn't thought out properly :)

     Precision I don't need, but nice big ranges are a plus :)

iconoclastically,
Carl

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
Dept. of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, & Celtic
St. John's College, University of Cambridge
mailto:cea20 at cus.cam.ac.uk
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~carl/