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Localization Failure: Temperature Is Hard

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Re: Localization Failure: Temperature Is Hard

#11
post #4

Hard? So is using the degree symbol apparently: not a single one in the whole article. (68F is not a temperature — it’s a seat number.) https://degreeswhat.com/?68

"To be fair", there is ASCII in the name

To be double fair, the page says in the bottom "And worry about whether this blog should have been called randomutf-8"

Re: Localization Failure: Temperature Is Hard

#13

Hard? So is using the degree symbol apparently: not a single one in the whole article. (68F is not a temperature — it’s a seat number.) https://degreeswhat.com/?68

No, 68 farads is a capacitance. Pretty massive one, too.

It's another question how they obtain that from coulombs...

Re: Localization Failure: Temperature Is Hard

#14

If you want "twice as hot" to be meaningful, you have to use an absolute scale, either Kelvin or Rankine. (1 K = 1.8 °R) Doubling absolute temperature doubles the pressure (at constant volume) or volume (at constant pressure) of an ideal gas. This gets really important when it comes to compressing and expanding air and other gasses. Room temperature is approximately 293 K, twice that is 586 K / 595 °F / 313 °C. Hotte…

You don't need an absolute scale, you just need a sensible origin. I suggest taking human perception into account.

When talking about the weather or everyday objects, one could argue that the border between "hot" and "cold" is somewhere at room temperature, so around 21°C. At that temperature, it's neither hot or cold. If it's 30°C, it's 9°C of "hotness", so 39°C would be twice as hot. I don't know if it feels twice as hot, as that's quite subjective, but if you want more precision we should switch to another vocabulary entirely.

Re: Localization Failure: Temperature Is Hard

#15
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do we use degrees for other temperatures by the way? Is that related to some kind of absolute vs relative metric? (Kelvin, I guess, is based on absolute zero as a reference point, doesn't it?) Incidentally, why is the degree immune to disappearance in division unlike all other units? That is, if I divide a distance (m) by a speed (m/s) I get a duration (s). From sheer memory, degree doesn't work like that. Any cl…

Degrees aren't a 'unit' indeed because the zero point isn't a real zero. Hence you don't get correct scaling.

Except for the degrees that measure an angle.

Re: Localization Failure: Temperature Is Hard

#16
A bit related, but I hate how many errors I get because I want my system language to be English instead of my native language (Norwegian) on my laptop, phone etc. Because I don't want a badly translated experience. However, I still want units in meters, Celsius, dates written sensibly, time in 24h format etc. But not all apps understand this, which is quite annoying. It's like they only look at the language and make a decision, even though on OS level there's more fine grained locale settings.

Re: Localization Failure: Temperature Is Hard

#17
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do we use degrees for other temperatures by the way? Is that related to some kind of absolute vs relative metric? (Kelvin, I guess, is based on absolute zero as a reference point, doesn't it?) Incidentally, why is the degree immune to disappearance in division unlike all other units? That is, if I divide a distance (m) by a speed (m/s) I get a duration (s). From sheer memory, degree doesn't work like that. Any cl…

Degrees aren't a 'unit' indeed because the zero point isn't a real zero. Hence you don't get correct scaling.

That is true, but if you're talking about a change in temperature (the temperature is rising by 2 degrees per hour, or the temperature falls by so many degrees per km of altitude) then there's a real zero, of course.
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