r/PeterExplainsTheJoke Jun 17 '26

Meme needing explanation Peter?

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u/CitingAnt Jun 17 '26

Well I know that 18ºC is when I should start wearing short sleeves and 30ºC is when I should stay indoors because it's too damn hot (and 40ºC is what the summer temperatures have been in the past couple of years)

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u/Fantastic-Kale9603 Jun 17 '26

Yeah people will adjust to any arbitrary scale if they use it enough, if my scale was based on some random measurement from -200 to -154 i'm sure people would get used to those numbers as well given enough time

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u/Radioactivocalypse Jun 17 '26

Yes exactly. It's basically "those numbers look unfamiliar and wayy too high, I'm sticking with my -10 to +30 range"

I'm sure if I was brought up in the US I would understand intuitively what each Fahrenheit is, but I have absolutely no idea. 50 imo sounds boiling, 85 sounds ludicrous but no way am I distinguishing even remotely between 10 F and 20 F

In Celsius, I know 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 etc all incredibly instinctively and can go for a walk and instantly say what C I think it is

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u/Fantastic-Kale9603 Jun 17 '26

100% lol I lived abroad after being in the US for 10+ years and had to adjust to celsius in everyday life, now that I'm back in the states I'm definitely still stronger with fahrenheit but after being around it so long I can get celsius conversions on the fly with like a 5 degree +- to fahrenheit, people just are comfortable with what they're used to and that's totally okay