People brag about how much more intuitive their particular systems of measurement are. For example, Americans will brag about how Fahrenheit is more intuitive: 0-100 degrees capture most outside temperatures (the actual extreme records are -128° to 134°, but those records are beyond absurd and probably not worth considering). Non-Americans brag about how Celsius is indexed to water: 32 is a weird point to have water freeze and 180° is weirdly arbitrary number of degrees between freezing and boiling.
There are no Kelvin stans except for nerds who spend too long online, so I’ll ignore them.
I have a better system. One that lacks the virtue of widespread adoption, but has every other virtue you could imagine. Click on!
The Styx system has water freezing set at its 0°S, human body temperature at 100°S, water boils at 269.22°, but who cares, because we’re neither water nor scientists (and they should use Kelvin). Every ten degrees feels a bit more drastic than Fahrenheit, but less so than Celsius.
The Earth Extremes system has the coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth at 0°E and the hottest at 100°E. Water boils at 129°E, which is uncomfortably close to 100. Every three or four degrees is a huge difference! But at least you’ll always know how your day compares to Saudi Arabia and Antarctica’s worst offerings!
… Those are the two alternative systems I’ve come up with. I wish Styx were adopted instead of Fahrenheit, which, although I like it, is hard to defend sometimes.
Absolute Zero |
So Cold |
So Cold |
Coldest |
Deadly |
Match F/C |
Brine Freeze |
H2O Freeze |
Very Cold | Cold | Cool | Nice | Warm | Hot | Body Temp | Very Hot | Deadly | Hottest | H2O Boil | |||||||
Fahrenheit |
-459.67 |
-400.00 | -328.00 | -300.00 | -200.00 | -148.00 | -128.60 | -100.00 | -40.00 | 0.00 | 10.00 | 20.00 | 32.00 | 40.00 | 50.00 | 60.00 | 70.00 | 80.00 | 90.00 | 98.60 | 110.00 | 120.00 | 134.00 | 200.00 | 211.30 |
Celsius |
-273.15 |
-240.00 | -200.00 | -184.44 | -128.89 | -100.00 | -89.22 | -73.33 | -40.00 | -17.78 | -12.22 | -6.67 | 0.00 | 4.44 | 10.00 | 15.56 | 21.11 | 26.67 | 32.22 | 37.00 | 43.33 | 48.89 | 56.67 | 93.33 | 99.61 |
Kelvin |
0.00 |
33.15 | 73.15 | 88.71 | 144.26 | 173.15 | 183.93 | 199.82 | 233.15 | 255.37 | 260.93 | 266.48 | 273.15 | 277.59 | 283.15 | 288.71 | 294.26 | 299.82 | 305.37 | 310.15 | 316.48 | 322.04 | 329.82 | 366.48 | 372.76 |
Styx |
-738.24 |
-648.65 | -540.54 | -498.50 | -348.35 | -270.27 | -241.14 | -198.20 | -108.11 | -48.05 | -33.03 | -18.02 | 0.00 | 12.01 | 27.03 | 42.04 | 57.06 | 72.07 | 87.09 | 100.00 | 117.12 | 132.13 | 153.15 | 252.25 | 269.22 |
Earth Extremes | -126.07 | 0 | 10.89 | 33.74 | 48.97 | 52.78 | 56.59 | 61.16 | 64.2 | 68.01 | 71.82 | 75.63 | 79.44 | 83.24 | 86.52 | 90.86 | 94.67 | 100 | 125.13 | 129.44 | |||||
-50 = brine freeze | 25 = cold | 50 = nice | 75 = warm | 125 = phoenix | |||||||||||||||||||||
-200 = dead | -100 = dead | 0 = freeze | 100 = hot | 150 = deadly |