Watching QI last night on TV.

One of the contestants was an American.

They were talking about who invented centigrade and how fahrenheit was older and Stephen Fry turned to the American and said "we do this funny thing here in Britain where we use centigrade in the winter and fahrenheit in the summer. We's say something like 'By-eck, its over 90 degrees out there' in September then gasp 'golly it's minus 4 out there today' in the winter".

Strangely enough the other panellists agreed.

Did the American look at him like he was a little daft? 'Cause that's a little daft. :) If you used the degree Reaumur when it is comfortable, you could have a trifecta.

But I have to ask, exactly where is the dividing line between using degrees C and F. IS C OK to 20, and F thereafter?

As much as I don't want to get into another debate about this (Stimpy!) just for the benefit of any Americans here who may not know the situation in Britain:

MOST people use Celsius all the time.

Ocasionally references to Fahrenehit are made for high temperatures.

Just trying to reassure you americans that we're not completely bonkers!

MOST people use Celsius in the winter and Fahrenheit in the summer.

Just trying to reassure you americans that we tend to pick and choose.

Most holiday brochures to sunny climes show F.

The cuttover is, I reckon, about 70F.

I use 50F/10C as my "time to switch on/off the central heating".

Also - btw - what was said on this comedy/quiz show was not met by boo's and "No way"s from the audience.

Sorry Andy - it happens (I know you have this strange hate of Fahrenheit so to a "degree" I understand your dilemma!)

<<< MOST people use Celsius in the winter and Fahrenheit in the summer. >>>

I admit I do have a dislike for Fahrenhiet, but that is absolute rubbish!! Listen to people!

I can't recall hearing ONE SINGLE person yet this summer mentioning a Fahrenehit temperature (apart from the conversion on the forecast) - and believe me I listen out for it!

That is like me saying most people use kilometres instead of miles.

I suspect you're on a wind-up here ;-)

I'm not on a wind up - I have admitted that my current colleagues go for celsius rather than F - but in balance it still goes F-way in the summer. I think its dependant on the group you are with. I even discussed this with one of my new colleagues which actually lead me to this conclusion (its sometimes good to consult people "out of the loop" - esp people you don't know yet.

Interestingly our youngest colleague (early 20's) "does both" - but most are C.

JohnS - This is one of those debates where andy and i tend to conclude with "lets agree to disagree" ;-)

OK, we'll have to agree to disagree.

But of all the people I know, friends, family, work colleagues etc (maybe 100 people altogether) I can think of only 3 who I have ever heard use Fahrenheit.

Allowing for the fact that I haven't heard all these 100 people talk about the weather, I would suggest that in my experience the preference for C over F in summer is about 90% (I'm being generous there - I would bet on it being higher if a survey was done), and in winter about 99%

<<
MOST people use Celsius in the winter and Fahrenheit in the summer.
>>

Don't you include 1 billion Chinese as PEOPLE?

What about another billion people from South Asia or 100 million Europeans who use German as their first language?

... I could go on.

We were talking about the UK Martin. Sorry if it wasn't clear.

Presuming almost all the people you know are probably from the UK I tend to think that its obvious you were talking about the UK.

Martin's doing his "the world isn't the UK/US" stuff.

Probably.

BTW upper 70's this weekend!

;-)

I think it is perfectly clear why people would use centigrade for one end of the range and fahrenheit for the other. It makes it harder to compare, but why would you want to compare? The point of giving a hot or cold temperature is to create an image in the listener's mind, not to give a piece of data for a calculation. If you want to make the point that it was very hot, a higher number will make your point better. Of course, I have no doubt that when people in the UK give a temperature for a calculation or to be recorded, they will give it in centigrade, but in the majority of cases people are more concerned with creating a vivid image than with compatibility with other data.

<<<If you want to make the point that it was very hot, a higher number will make your point better.>>>

Theres probably some truth in that. In Britain the most common use of Fahrenheit is by tabloid newspapers during a heatwave, and holiday brochures. Both have a vested interest in a bit of exaggeration.

Superficially, 90 degrees sounds hot and exotic. Saying 30 degrees gives the vast majority of Brits a better idea of just HOW hot it is, but that isn't the aim of either of the above.

Re: QI August 11 2005, 11:31 AM

Bud
<<<If you want to make the point that it was very hot, a higher number will make your point better.>>>

metre
Have to dissapoint you, it is all relative. In metric countries people would find anything above 45 scorching and thereafter unbearable. You never need to complicate it with 2 scales.

<<Superficially, 90 degrees sounds hot and exotic. Saying 30 degrees gives the vast majority of Brits a better idea of just HOW hot it is, but that isn't the aim of either of the above.>>


I agree the scale is such that 90 "sounds" hot - but people generally won't know exactly how it feels as much as someone saying "30". Likewise zero "sounds" cold but 34F (or whatever) is the same but it....

...

...


Hmm, we'll prob do that agree to disagree thing again - for future purposes lets call it an "A-to-D"
;-)