Metric essay

[Pat Ford]

Previously, you (ken mayer) wrote:
> 
> > 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.  

I'm NOT saying my wife is cold but she read 37.6 8))


>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.

Close but no cigar 0 degree f is the freezing point of acohol (sp?)
100F is the boiling point of acohol


> 
> Ken
> :-)
> 

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Pat Ford                           email: pford at qnx.com
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