How cold is it?

As I mentioned earlier [Mar.6, 2005], as years go by, I’m less convinced that the decimal system imposed onto the units of measurements was an improvement from the everyday life point of view. OK, it has scientific look and usage but is it up to human senses?

I have better sense of a foot than a meter: when planning furniture or pictures on the wall, foot (30 cm) is such a natural unit of space measurements. When the GR pojata was built, I was puzzled with the 33 cm square tiles until I realized this is 9 tiles into a square meter. Neither 9 nor 33 are the numbers a decimal system should be proud of. So, why 33 cm? Because it is so close to a foot, I believe. Then, if you want smaller tiles, but compatible with larger ones, what can you do with 33 cm? Starting from a foot (1ft = 12 in), full inch combinations are possible: 6 in and 4 in.

Wait, the story on temperature is even more instructive. Taking freezing point and boiling point of water as the anchors for the Celsius temperature scale and dividing the range into 100 degrees, that looks "decimally scientific" but is it recognizable on the scale of human senses? First of all, a degC is rather large temperature unit and not very practical in everyday life because it’s uncommon to express weather reports in fractions of a degree. On the Fahrenheit temperature scale with so "unscientific" anchor temperatures, nevertheless, a degF is about half size of degC, and more practical because of that. When it comes to labeling of temperature ranges, for the cold weather in particular, 0^oC is not very useful. You feel, very likely, some cooling effect from 10^oC down to 0^oC (on F-scale you would say "when temperatures are in forties and thirties"), but, very likely, you’ll start feeling really cold a couple degrees below 0^oC ( "when temperatures are in twenties" on F-scale). It becomes bitter cold below 0^oF: frostbites likely in less than 10 min, exposed skin can freeze within 3 min. Before that, two very cold ranges on F-scale are labeled as "teens" (unpleasant cold, frostbite possible) and "single digits" (very unpleasant cold, exposed skin can freeze within 5 min). Now, try to label a similar distinction on the C-scale. Got it?

 2010-01-31 

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