Household Temperature

[Ronald Cherrycoke]

Originally Posted by Kingswood

People should be able to work it out from context, although it is helpful to post the units. 70 C is the temperature of the inside of my car on the hottest day of summer after the car has been parked in the sun all day (I still have the partially melted thermometer), so it's not possible for people to keep their houses at that temperature! So Fahrenheit must be the units. Yesterday evening, that same thermometer reported that inside my home, the temperature was a nice 24 degrees after a pleasant summer's day. For 24 degrees to be pleasant, the units must be Celsius.


I agree, Bush seems to be doing more to Americans than a working knowledge of the metric system ever will.


Don't panic, nobody's asking you to change. If you ever need to convert F to C, just remember the formula: C = 5/9 (F-32), and the reverse is: F = 32 + 9/5 C. But you don't really need to remember that. Temperate twenties, thermal thirties and flaming forties should be good enough. I don't know where the inside car temperature of 70 C fits on that scale, except to say that 60 C will kill bacteria in hot food, some meats are cooked when the inside temperature reaches 70 C, and had I left eggs inside my car that day they would probably have been cooked. (That gives me an idea for a new and unusual recipe for coddled eggs, along the line of The Manifold Destiny.)

Just post the units to which you are accustomed. As long as you don't mind my posting in Celsius, kilometres and litres when the occasion arises. The only difficulty I have with US measurements is where the conversions are different to British measures, otherwise I can manage them well enough. I know that a mile has 63,360 inches and that the path from inches to miles is an interesting journey with numbers like 12, 3, 5+1/2, 4, 10 and 8 (multiply those numbers together and you get 63,360).

That is what comes of growing up during the time of Metric conversion. My late father loathed Metric, but I learned Metric in school, so it was natural to become fluent in both systems. He was even suspicious of decimal currency when it was first introduced.

The US measurement system is a confusing matter and still holds itself apart from the metric system employed by most other countries. There are a few exceptions. Medical and scientific fields use the metric system, and many items for trade are now measured in the International System of Units (SI), also called the metric system.

The US measurement system is based on the English system, though England has now long since converted to SI. However, the change to SI was not an easy passage in the mid 19th century. At first some of the British resisted the change to the SI measurement system with great force.

Legally, according to laws passed in 1988, SI became the standard measurement system for trade and commerce in the US. SI is also taught in schools at a relatively young age, but it is difficult to make the conversions.

If one initially learns the metric system, it is far easier. Everything is constructed on a base ten approach, so conversion from centimeters to meters is a simple matter. Conversely, the US measurement system is often problematic. It is not consistent in its measurements so conversion is quite challenging.

For example, twelve inches equal a foot, but eight ounces equal a cup. Sixteen ounces equal a pound, but three feet equal a yard. Children must memorize quite a bit to perform appropriate conversions.

Since children usually first learn to measure by inches, the metric system cannot be properly taught until multiplication skills are mastered. An inch converts to 2.54 centimeters, thus anything above ten inches involves two-digit multiplication. This is a skill not mastered by most students until the later part of third or even fourth grade.

If, conversely, the metric measurement system were adopted immediately, children would probably learn it just as quickly as they learn the US system. However, since real-life examples are often included in teaching, this would be difficult to do. If one buys a TV, he or she buys a 20-inch screen, not a .508-meter screen. If one purchases milk, the choice is a quart, a pint or a gallon, not a measurement in liters.

In general, consumer products still adhere to the US measurement system, as well as American cookbooks, so these figures must be known. Essentially, this means US children must learn two measurement systems, and unless they plan to export items, or become doctors or scientists, they may never fully master SI.

Unless the US government insists on the conversion in products, and teaching in the metric system, it is likely we will retain the US measurement system. However, with increasing globalization it makes sense to consider that much of the world, and especially the scientific world, relies on the metric system. Our ability to learn it makes us have that much more in common with our fellow countries



BLAME IT ON THE ENGLISH!