Metric essay

[ken mayer]

> Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1999 22:46:04 EDT
> From: Regnirps at aol.com
> 
> In a message dated 6/5/99 6:09:23 AM, c95fsg at cs.umu.se writes:

[snip]
> >And Fahrenheit....even the americans don't know how
> >it works. Alot of people I have talked to on the internet don't know the
> >exact Fahrenheit for boiling water...and I don't blame them...there are
> >not logic whatsoever in the scale.
> 
> You and they found Fahrenheit confusing because you are making a wrong 
> assumption. Centigrade is based on freezing and boiling of WATER. Fahrenheit 
> is based on extremes as felt by the human body! 100 is HOT and 0 is COLD. 
> Freezing water is no big deal for a woolen clad Northern European, but 0 is 
> uncomfortably cold.

When Mr. Fahrenheit invented the thermometer, he had marked some arbitrary
scale on it.  When he placed it into icewater, it read 32.  When he placed
it in his wife's mouth, it read 98.7.  When he placed it into boiling
water, it read 212.  It has nothing to do with feeling hot or cold.  The
scale is entirely arbitrary.

Ken
:-)