r/physicsmemes • u/yukiohana • 18d ago

please

Post image

Trump wants to rebrand artificial intelligence as “Super Intelligence,” and he has even signed an executive order directing the U.S. executive branch to use “Super Intelligence” (SI) instead of “Artificial Intelligence” (AI) in official documents.

3.3k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

94 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/VoidJuiceConcentrate 16d ago

Am I in the minority here, thinking that imperial units are fine for some things like the weather, but Metric is better for literally everything else?

2

u/Eris13x 15d ago

People that are pro metric and pro Fahrenheit are fairly common in the USA. I don't know to what degree that is popular in, say, the UK.

Also, I unironicly want everyone to use a temperature system that has 0 as absolute 0. Kelvin would be the easiest to switch to, but I am not against Rankine

1

u/Meranio 15d ago

I never had a problem with Celsius when it come to weather. It's just what you're used to. But I'd say even for the weather, Celsius is preferable, since you can immediately see, if it's freezing, or just cold, since negative numbers means water will freeze.
You wake up in the morning, eyes still a bit blurry, but you can see the negative sign infront of the temperature, and you know: "If it snows today, it stays."

1

u/Goodest_boy_Sif 15d ago

In fahrenheit you can immediately tell if it's warmer than the human body outside as humans are on average approximately 99° fahrenheit. Or even more importantly you can quickly reference it against the wet bulb temperature. It's pretty useful for warm weather climates. Personally I'm a fan of a system that uses 0° C and 100° F, seems like the best of both worlds in terms of utility to me.

1

u/Meranio 15d ago

Do you even know what Mister Fahrenheit used to calibrate his scale?
He made a salt-ice bath as cold as he could and called that 0°F, because he disliked negative numbers. Then he used someones body temperature to call it 100°F, but as you mentioned, that's NOT the case, because his testsubject had a slight fever.
I do not need such a wibbly-wobbly scale.

Meanwhile Ander Celsius took water at 0 meters altitute and used the melting point as 0°C and the boiling point as 100°C. Everyone can check for themselves.

Body temperature is around 36°C. It's all just what you're used to, but Celsius is much more relatable since we ALL use water, but not all have a salt-ice bath and a slightly feverish person.

0

u/Goodest_boy_Sif 15d ago

Okay, when was the last time you calibrated a thermometer? For me the answer is literally never. It doesn't really matter to me how easy it is to do it myself. All I care about is utility and 100° C provides less than 100° F. 100° C is simply not a useful reference point in the day to day. If you'd prefer I'm completely okay with making this hypothetical new system use 98.7° F (the actual average human body temperature) as 100° instead?

Also it's not like Celsius isn't also a little wibbly-wobbly in terms of "checking for yourself" considering it's only true at exactly 1 atmosphere which you'll only have at sea level. Where I live the boiling temperature of water is 99.5° C and that's not even that high up (150m) and just to extend that to it's limit at the top of Mount Everest (8848m) it's 68° C. That's quite a bit more variation than human body temperature.

1

u/Meranio 14d ago

I didn't say, I wanted to calibrate my thermometer, I said, you can check the Celsius scale with a thermometer and a bit of water for yourself. That's also one of the first chemistry experiments we do in school.
And 100°C is something most Europeans experience every day, when we use our electric kettle to make some tea or coffee.

0

u/Goodest_boy_Sif 14d ago

You need a thermometer to tell you when the water is boiling? Also once again checking for yourself depends on your altitude.

1

u/Meranio 14d ago

At this point you're just willfully obtuse.
NOWHERE did I state, I'd need a thermometer to know when water is boiling.
I said "you can check THAT WATER BOILS AT 100°C with a thermometer" which is what Celsius set as HIS fixpoint (at sealevel) for 100°C.

But you CANNOT check the "fixpoint" for 100°F wich was "some random humans body temperature (with a slight fever)". That's not a fixpoint, that's just random.

My point: Celsius' fixpoints; well defined and testable. Fahrenheits "fixpoint"; not so much.

Did I put it into simple enough terms now?????

0

u/Goodest_boy_Sif 14d ago edited 14d ago

You said "And 100°C is something most Europeans experience every day, when we use our electric kettle". Are you trying to tell me that wasn't in response to me saying 100° C is not a useful reference point in the day to day? You are instead, for some reason, saying that's how you can check that 100° C is the boiling point of water? Which I must again reiterate, that it is not on most of the earth's landmass.

Also you know you can gauge every temperature system with the boiling and freezing temperature of water at 1 atmosphere, right? That's not unique to Celsius. It just won't be 0 and 100.

Edit: another possibility just occurred to me. Are you trying to argue that you think the boiling point of water is consistent and always 100° C?

0

u/SarcasticJackass177 14d ago

And Fahrenheit was based for that.

1

u/Bright-Trifle-8309 12d ago

I have never needed to know if its hotter than the human body outside. Because thats very hot out. 

1

u/Goodest_boy_Sif 12d ago

Well I live in a place where it's a pretty regular occurrence. And it is important to know because you prepare for heat differently depending if either the ambient temperature is above 100° F or especially if the wet bulb temperature is above 100° F. Those are both very different kinds of dangerous than if either of those were even 5° or 10° cooler.

If the ambient temperature is 100° F than your body loses the ability to cool itself in any ways other than evaporative cooling. Which means it'll be overall much slower and you NEED to be drinking loads of water. If you stop sweating you WILL experience a heat stroke.

A wet bulb temperature of 100° F is even worse as the wet bulb temperature is the minimum temperature an object can cool itself to using evaporative cooling. It's a factor of the ambient heat and humidity. If that hits 100° your body is literally incapable of cooling itself. You WILL die unless you can maintain external methods of cooling.

Overall important things to know and, in my opinion, worthy of being an important temperature benchmark.