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jlongman | 1 month ago

That’s funny because when I work with Fahrenheit I just work with 5°F ranges to compensate for the approximate mental math required. Eg very quick mentally, 100°F = 37.778 °C (thanks autocorrect) = (100-32)/2 = 34.

But if it was closer to freezing say 42°F =5.556 °C (again) so 5°C. So arbitrarily we could say 57°F was 12°C =53.6 °F actually.

But a true Canuck knows knowing the temp is barely half the battle, what’s the wind speed and humidity? 29°C can be a lovely day if it’s dry or completely unbearable if it’s humid.

We hardly ever use decimals for weather-related measurements, the other factors above being more relevant.

Contrast that with measurements where I would say if you need to know a precise one you should be using decimal; ie what do you do if it doesn’t precisely third or fourth? If you’re talking about tool sizes then any system works as long as your froodle matches the grommlet.

discuss

order

candiddevmike|1 month ago

(F - 30) / 2 = ~C

C * 2 + 30 = ~F

SECProto|1 month ago

No need to simplify this.

(F - 32) / 1.8 = C

C * 1.8 + 32 = F

I personally find the math just as easy to do accurately. For example, 87F -32/1.8 = 55/1.8 =~30.5C. Compare that to your approximate method, which would give 28.5C, which is just wrong

(Maybe I just got really good at this when working a public facing job with a lot of American tourists - they would ask what our celsius temperatures were "in real units", so I got quite comfortable converting the air and water temps. Fahrenheit never once became intuitive to me, though.)

bsder|1 month ago

(F + 40) * 5/9 - 40 = C

(C + 40) * 9/5 - 40 = F

Takes advantage of the fact that -40 F and -40 C are the same.

Remember it as (move origin -- convert -- move origin back).

I find it easier as a I don't have to remember precedence rules and the multiplication is obvious.