• ryathal@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    10 months ago

    Both are equally arbitrary. You just have to know a handful of temperatures that you use in your day to day life either way.

      • marcos@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        10 months ago

        Hum… Around here water boils at ~96°C (some labs measure that). And it seems to not freeze at 0°C anywhere on Earth, as it’s never pure water, with never an homogeneous freezing point.

        It is repeatable, it’s not very arbitrary, but “intuitive” doesn’t apply in any way.

        • mypasswordistaco@iusearchlinux.fyi
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          10 months ago

          You must be at altitude. That definitely makes a difference for the boiling point, but of course water freezes at 0. Impurities that you’ll encounter in tap water, for example, will not have a large effect on freezing point.

          Even if it was different by a few degrees, how does that make the scale any less intuitive?