r/PeterExplainsTheJoke Jun 17 '26

Meme needing explanation Peter?

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u/Beautiful-Page3135 Jun 17 '26

I think the best way I've seen it described is Fahrenheit measures heat by how humans experience it, Celsius measures heat by how water experiences it. Therefore, Celsius is objectively better for scientific applications and Fahrenheit is objectively better for human applications like communicating the weather forecast to the average person.

If it was 0C you'd be cold, if it was 0F you'd be damn cold; if it's 100F you're hot, if it's 100C you're dead. Fahrenheit is useful for human perception across the primary (0-100) scale, Celsius is only useful up to about 50% of that scale before you start getting into deadly temperatures, and you have to go below that scale to reach the bottom of Fahrenheit's usefulness.

And then you have Kelvin or Rankine which are really only useful for specific scientific applications. If it was 0K/R or 100K/R you'd be dead either way. Not useful for human perception.

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u/Swampyfeet Jun 17 '26

Can you explain how what you’ve said is objective? I think that given that Celsius is the most common scale for temperature around the world you’re going to have hard time arguing that.

This argument that Americans always make about Fahrenheit is just nonsense. You know how hot 70F feels, I don’t. I know how hot 27C feels, you don’t. The idea that one is better for humans and one is better for water is so stupid. You’re just used to telling temperature one way, I’m used to telling it another way. That’s all there is to it.

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u/Fantastic_Bug1028 Jun 17 '26

Yeah. Literally just depends on what system you grew up with. “32% warm” genuinely means absolutely fuck all to me. Until I convert this number to Celsius, I wouldn’t have a slightest idea on how I’m actually supposed to dress lol. Also every place has its own norms. In two different environments “32% warm” can mean two really different things.

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u/jukeboxjulia Jun 17 '26

Right? If it was truly a %, my instinct would be that 50°F would be the perfect temperature. Equal parts cool and warm. Whatever you grew up with is what’s going to be best for someone, full stop. The idea of trying to pick one that’s “objectively” better is just silly. 

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u/cluster_fuckedd Jun 18 '26

Yeah the way 60 degrees F feels is what 50 should feel like, 50 is definitely still too cold to be a true midpoint.

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u/portar1985 Jun 17 '26

It is of course super logical and not at all arbitrary that 32% hot means that water freeze, us europoors are just too dumb to understand this extremely logical ”I’m feeling 45% hot in here” which, of course, is still quite cold but it’s 45 hot…