Why Do FM Frequencies End in an Odd Decimal? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Do FM Frequencies End in an Odd Decimal?

#51

Post by mpyne » Sat, Jan 18, 2014, 12:54 AM UTC

bcj wrote: post #40

stephencanon wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

0 is uncomfortably cold. 100 is uncomfortably hot. The temperatures that non-STEM people (“humans”) deal with on a day-to-day basis can be represented with satisfactory precision using two digits (OK, three in Australia), no negative numbers, no decimals. It’s a great system for casual temperatures. Whereas “reasonable” temperatures in C run from what, -18ish to 38ish? Where’s the sense in that? If you want to defend…

There are a lot of humans that live places where we regularly see negative temperatures. Where I live the temperature range is roughly -40–85ºF. Choosing the freezing point of water isn't really mystic. It lets you know whether it will rain or snow. It also means that any negative temperature is capable of causing frostbite.

> It lets you know whether it will rain or snow.

Not really, since it depends upon temperature at the clouds, not at the ground level. Oh, and it also depends on atmosphere pressure, and on time (since a phase change requires latent heat transfer in addition to merely being at the right temperature).

And as baddox mentions, 32 is hardly harder to memorize than 0, especially if you know anything at all about computers.

Re: Why Do FM Frequencies End in an Odd Decimal?

#52

Post by pwg » Sat, Jan 18, 2014, 1:18 AM UTC

dmur wrote: post #39

dfc wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The text was most likely written by a civil service employee. Civil servants are not politicians.

I don't think pwg was implying civil servants are politicians, rather merely pointing out that the text reads like a political speech.

Correct conclusion.

Re: Why Do FM Frequencies End in an Odd Decimal?

#53

Post by com2kid » Sat, Jan 18, 2014, 7:24 AM UTC

baddox wrote: post #45

eigenvector wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fahrenheit is not intuitive, you just think so because you grew up with it. People who grew up with Celcius have no problem relating to how cold 30 C or 100 C or -20 C are.

Celsius is no more intuitive for everyday usage. Of all the scientific unit debates, the temperature one is by far the silliest. There are very few temperatures that people need to memorize, and they're trivial to memorize in either temperature scale.

This I disagree with. Born and raised in America, I still cannot remember what temperature water boils at in Fahrenheit, I just remember it is something over 200 degrees.

Celsius is easy, 100. :)

Re: Why Do FM Frequencies End in an Odd Decimal?

#54

Post by richardw » Sat, Jan 18, 2014, 7:28 AM UTC

nkvoll wrote: post #5

miahi wrote: post #3

This only happens in the US, probably. The fun fact is that some car manufacturers believe this is global, so they only allow odd frequencies on the car radio.

We had a radio in our old Chrysler Voyager that required a pretty insane secret code being entered (turning it off and on again 5 times in a row or something like that was part of it) in order to enable to tune to regular EU frequencies...

My 2013 VW Golf has a similarly mad method to move the windscreen wipers to a position that enables the window to be cleaned. I forget the trick - I think its turn the car off, then on, then move the wiper stalk to one of its four or five positions. Or vice versa. I really can't remember.

Edit: switch ignition on, then off. Briefly press the down the windscreen wiper lever.

Re: Why Do FM Frequencies End in an Odd Decimal?

#55

Post by laacz » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 11:01 AM UTC

richardw wrote: post #54

nkvoll wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We had a radio in our old Chrysler Voyager that required a pretty insane secret code being entered (turning it off and on again 5 times in a row or something like that was part of it) in order to enable to tune to regular EU frequencies...

My 2013 VW Golf has a similarly mad method to move the windscreen wipers to a position that enables the window to be cleaned. I forget the trick - I think its turn the car off, then on, then move the wiper stalk to one of its four or five positions. Or vice versa. I really can't remember. Edit: switch ignition on, then off. Briefly press the down the windscreen wiper lever.

Oh, that servicing position. That's because you can't lift wipers from their resting position since bommet is too close to windscreen. You have to turn on the ingition, turn it off and then hold wiper stalk in the lowest position for 2 seconds. Same goes for 2013 Skoda Octavia. Had to learn that yesterday :)

Re: Why Do FM Frequencies End in an Odd Decimal?

#56

Post by amalag » Fri, Jan 31, 2014, 3:00 PM UTC

eigenvector wrote: post #36

amalag wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is still nice because it is human centric, roughly 0 to 100 for temperatures is easily relatable to the human body. 90 is hot, 10 is cold. Celsius starting at the freezing point of water is not as human centric.

Fahrenheit is not intuitive, you just think so because you grew up with it. People who grew up with Celcius have no problem relating to how cold 30 C or 100 C or -20 C are.

I never said intuitive, I said human centric. Everyone can relate to a number, but it is not as human centric as Fahrenheit which has 0 to 100 more relative to a human scale.