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What's the weather like where you are ?

None of which applied in this context, apart from quick and dirty! :D
 
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Trev said:
Not if your computer is not on and your smartphone isn't handy and you want an approximate quick and dirty conversion.
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But that's my original point. 30C is 90F by your method, which is a lot scarier than 86F (the experience gets disproportionately worse the closer you get to blood heat - and yes you can tell a degree either way, it's the difference between being just comfortable and being chilly enough to turn on the heating*).

Reaching for a calculator (or Google) makes people lazy and actually loses the skills of mental arithmetic. You know the adage: use it or lose it.

* The discussion hasn't mentioned temperature perception yet. If the surrounding air is moving, that increases the rate of heat transfer from a warmer body (or to a cooler body!) resulting in a 'wind chill factor' that is dependent on the temperature difference between the air and the body and the relative speed. If the surrounding air is moist, that decreases the rate of cooling from a damp body by latent heat of evaporation resulting in a 'humidity index' (AKA "humidex"). And these are dependent on air density and therefore barometric pressure and altitude.
 
None of which addresses the point about tedious calculations when the height in metres isn't a really easy number.

Does anyone here still calculate their fuel purchases in gallons?
 
trog said:
But is such accuracy needed when all we are doing is then converting that figure into our recollection of how hot or cold that feels?
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Black Hole said:
The discussion hasn't mentioned temperature perception yet.
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Quite so. The accuracies being talked about are largely irrelevant when our perception is involved. The met office kindly provide a "Feels like temperature" as part of their web page forecasts, and that clearly involves wind and humidity at least.
 
Our conservatory reached 57°C recently when we were away. :confused:

Converting to F or K would add nothing to that.
 
Mike0001 said:
Does anyone here still calculate their fuel purchases in gallons?
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Don't be silly. I just fill mine up and drive it 'till it needs filling up again. Strange how my car's computer gives me consumption in MPG though. I understand that. l/100km is stupid.
 
Clearly we are all of the generation that was taught imperial and then learned metric as the UK did it's partial conversion. Once we bi-unital folk are out of circulation the following generation, who were never taught imperial, will perhaps complete metrication.
 
It was really funny talking to my sister's kids (when they were still school age) in feet and inches - blank looks! They're a bit more with it now (I suspect they would even tell me their heights in imperial). The next generation is on its way...

Mike0001 said:
None of which addresses the point about tedious calculations when the height in metres isn't a really easy number.
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I limit at three sig figs, rounding the rest as I go. That's good enough for me, and only means three or four digits in the arithmetic - but like I said: use it or lose it.

Mike0001 said:
Does anyone here still calculate their fuel purchases in gallons?
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What I'm interested in is miles per pound (or its reciprocal).

MikeSh said:
The met office kindly provide a "Feels like temperature" as part of their web page forecasts, and that clearly involves wind and humidity at least.
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I suspect their "feels like" only accounts for wind chill. I came across humidex while I was in Canada, where (around the Great Lakes) there is a summer problem of 40-degree temperatures and close to 100% humidity. We used to dash from the air conditioned offices to our cars and get the air con on in them as quickly as possible.
 
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I also measure things using the old fashioned way of comparing to parts of my body: My handspan is a useful 8" and my thumb is 2".
 
Black Hole said:
I suspect their "feels like" only accounts for wind chill.
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That's sort of what I assumed until a few weeks ago. I noticed that the feels like on two consecutive days with the same temperature but less wind was almost the same. I put it down to higher humidity, but didn't do a thorough investigation.
 
Trev said:
Don't be silly. I just fill mine up and drive it 'till it needs filling up again. Strange how my car's computer gives me consumption in MPG though. I understand that. l/100km is stupid.
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The mpg should be an option. Agree, l/100km is silly, though I have sometimes compared moles/l.
 
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