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Comment by madeofpalk | Hacker News Reader

I only know Celsius, but it's pretty clear here from context that it's Fahrenheit. It's annoying, because I still don't know what the measured temperature actually was, but I feel pretty safe assuming that the air temperature was not above the boiling point of water where I guess there would be spontaneous combustion

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The best way to interpret Fahrenheit (for Celsius people) is to think of a scale from 0 to a 100 in terms of human comfort.

0F is really cold.

100F is really hot.

Something towards the middle feels pretty good (50F, 60F.. but really depends on preference in this region).

So, with that in mind, 130F is scorching off the charts, and I wouldn't want to be out there.

> The best way to interpret Fahrenheit (for Celsius people) is to think of a scale from 0 to a 100 in terms of human comfort.

I've heard this several times, but I can tell you it really doesn't help me to get a good sense of Farenheit. My theory is Americans enjoy describing it this way (0 = really cold, 100 = really hot) because it seems pragmatic and humane, but it probably does little to help them get a feel for the scale. The main reason they have a good feel for the Farenheit scale is lots of experience with it, same as any other scale. Lots of internalised data points that create a frame of reference.

We Brits like to think our scale is easy because 0 = melting ice, 100 = boiling water. But when I estimate the outdoor temperature as 25 C, I think my brain is really just linking that to past experiences of similar temperatures, the ice/boiling water thing doesn't come into it.

Americans describe it in this way because in large swaths of America, 100F is more or less the hottest it will ever get, and 0F is about as cold as it will ever get.

It's not a matter of "getting a sense of the scale". That sense of the scale comes from lived experience of weather, not brief textual descriptions of the scale.

So we agree then?

Room temperature is 72-74 degrees F (22-23 C). 68 is comfortable for me, and most people I know get cranky when the temperature dips below 65.

This doesn't change the fact that 130 is hot, but for many people 50 F is "freezing."

That's indoor temperature though. I assumed we were talking about outdoor temperature since usually the temperature provided by weather apps measures outside temperature. While 60 may be freezing indoors, it feels great outdoors to me.

Another easy way is to remember two points on each scale (which to me is easier than remembering the conversion equation). 0C is 32F, and -40C is -40F. From here you can figure out the conversion equation. It'll be easy after doing this a few times.

I think is more like the typical outside temperatures in the Netherlands (where Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit lived most of his life):

Rarely below -18°C ~ 0°F

and rarely above 38°C ~ 100°F

No, I really hoped to be amazed by some weird phenomenon that can cause 130 degrees. Didn't even think about Fahrenheit.

To get a rough idea of how warm it is in Fahrenheit just remember that 100 degrees Fahrenheit is the body temperature.

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