Guess What 2014-03-24

[MerchManDan]

an interesting story here... two clueless guys invented fahrenheit???

And the Celsius guy originally had waters boiling point at 0 and freezing point at 100?? Good grief.

[kingklash]

Did you know that the calculator that comes with Windows 7 (and 8, I presume, but I don't have that, so I wouldn't know...) has a built-in conversion tool?

It covers Angle, Area, Energy, Length, Power, Pressure, Temperature, Time, Velocity, Volume, Weight/Mass, with many different units for each, useable in either direction. I use it on a semi-regular basis. It's really useful.

I did not know that. Thank you for the info.

Will not be perfect until it can convert to Potrzebie.

[Fairportfan]

Did you know that the calculator that comes with Windows 7 (and 8, I presume, but I don't have that, so I wouldn't know...) has a built-in conversion tool?

It covers Angle, Area, Energy, Length, Power, Pressure, Temperature, Time, Velocity, Volume, Weight/Mass, with many different units for each, useable in either direction. I use it on a semi-regular basis. It's really useful.

I did not know that. Thank you for the info.

Will not be perfect until it can convert to Potrzebie.

Furlongs cubed per slug-fortnight squared.

[illiad]

an interesting story here... two clueless guys invented fahrenheit???

And the Celsius guy originally had waters boiling point at 0 and freezing point at 100?? Good grief.

are you missing your sarcasm tag???

anyone with a very simple, repeatable way of making a temperature scale, that simple people can do in a simple kitchen??

'at sea level' I hear you say... Even in Mexico City, 2,240 metres above sea level, water boils at 97C.. close enough.. :/

[Fairportfan]

'at sea level' I hear you say... Even in Mexico City, 2,240 metres above sea level, water boils at 97C.. close enough.. :/

Except, if you read recipes or the direction on packaged mix boxes carefully, you find out that you need to increase the liquid and the cooking time for most things that boil or simmer.

[lake_wrangler]

[...]the calculator that comes with Windows 7 [...]

Will not be perfect until it can convert to Potrzebie.

True, we can't really expect Microsoft to be quite as high-minded and sophisticated as the readers of this fine comic...

Although, technically, they did manage to come close:

In issue 33, Mad published a partial table of the "Potrzebie System of Weights and Measures", developed by 19-year-old Donald E. Knuth, later a famed computer scientist. According to Knuth, the basis of this new revolutionary system is the potrzebie, which equals the thickness of Mad issue 26, or 2.263348517438173216473 mm. A standardization in terms of the wavelength of the red line of the emission spectrum of Cadmium is also given, which if the 1927 definition of the Angstrom is taken for the value of that wavelength, would equal 2.263347539605392 mm.
(Emphasis mine)

And one will note that in the Length section of the conversion fonction of the MS calculator, the Angstrom is indeed listed. Sadly, however, we find no mention whatsoever of the ngogn for volume, the blintz for mass, the clarke (1 average earth rotation), the mingo (a 10-clarke unit to replace the months), or the 100-clarke cowznofski year for time units, not to mention the units whatmeworry, cowznofski, vreeble, hoo and hah.

On the other hand:

Google's calculator and Wolfram Alpha can perform conversions between potrzebies and other units.

Furlongs cubed per slug-fortnight squared.

Perhaps, some day, we can hope to reach the level of refinement necessary to include such a unit into a common unit conversion tool.

[Atomic]

Well, there goes my cubic furlongs per hectare joke....

[Fairportfan]

I actually did the conversion, about thirty years ago. Can't remember the result.

[MerchManDan]

an interesting story here... two clueless guys invented fahrenheit???

And the Celsius guy originally had waters boiling point at 0 and freezing point at 100?? Good grief.

are you missing your sarcasm tag???

What? No. Why would I be using sarcasm? Was the article not serious about that point?

[illiad]

hey man, just checkin.... didn't want to bawl you out fer no reason..

- of course if you re a chef like FPF, it starts to matter... me, I worry about burnin water...

[Sidhekin]

I'm pretty sure it's serious.

Perhaps notable, it was an other famous Swede, Linnaeus, who reversed Celsius' scale.

I'm not sure if it happened after Celsius died, though. I've seen the year given as 1743 (which would be before Celsius died), 1744 (which could be either), and 1745 (which would be after).

And here's a possible explanation, extrapolated from the inturwebbes:

In 1743, Linnaeus ordered a mercury thermometer to be made by master instrument maker Daniel Ekström. It was finished in 1744, but was broken in transit from Ekström to Linnaeus. A replacement was finished in 1745.

And this was the first thermometer with the reversed Celsius scale, ordered in 1743, but not used until 1745.

[bmonk]

And, given the current scales, there is only one temperature at which you don't need any designation: -40°.

-40F = -40C, and the K scale has (effectively) no negative (as does Rankhine, which is Fahrenheit + 469.67).
You can in theory get negative Kelvin temperatures, but they are hotter than any positive temp.