Sorry, Celcius! Fahrenheit is a superior way to measure temperature (here's why)

There is a huge user experience problem with measuring distance and temperature.

We’ve all learned about SI Units in science class. This is the metric system most of the world uses.

I think science measures things correctly, but sticking to scientific metrics when communicating daily is folly.

Distance is better said in minutes instead of miles or kilometers. The weather is better said in Fahrenheit instead of Celsius.

Let me explain.

Communicating Distance in Minutes

I realized this when I was watching an interview with a billionaire (I forget who). He said, “Well, Geneva is just a few hours away.” My brain didn’t process this until I realized this guy takes his private jet everywhere. Of course, any place in the world is “a few hours away.”

Measuring distance in meters makes sense for science. It doesn’t make sense for humans.

Then I realized we were calculating distance wrong.

Here’s why:

Context: You and I would mostly talk about distance when we want to communicate how far apart two places are. We never speak about distance otherwise (unlike Science, which uses distance for all sorts of calculations). This means we need to change our metric to suit our context of communication.
Visualization: It’s hard to visualize a kilometer or a mile. You can’t picture it. Unless you’re a marathon runner, you have no idea how long or short a kilometer is. And even if you are one, you’re likely not running your way to the destination, so it’s hard to visualize how far "13 kilometers" is, for instance.
Consistency: How long the distance feels depends on many factors, including the mode of transport (car vs. train), the nature of the terrain (straight highway vs. twisty mountain road), the levels of traffic, and more. “13 kilometers” on a straight highway with sparse traffic can feel different from 13 kilometers up a mountain with jam-packed traffic.

QED. Talking about distance in meters isn’t consistent with the human experience.

A better way to communicate distance

People naturally do this, but it’s better to communicate distance in hours or minutes instead of kilometers.

“I’m 15 minutes away” is easier to understand than “I am 6.6 kilometers from you.”

Communicating distance in terms of time solves all of our problems.

It works for the human context. You never really want to know the distance between two places; you just need to know how long it would take to get there. Geneva may be a week or two away for you, as you’ll have to prep for the trip, book a reasonably priced flight, pack, and plan. It’s only a few hours away for the billionaire who simply hops on his jet.
It’s easy to visualize. We are all intimately familiar with time more than distance. I know what 8 hours feels like, but I don’t know what 8 kilometers means. Kilometers are abstract, while time is natural.
It’s consistent. You may be just 5 kilometers away, but that doesn’t matter if you’re stuck in traffic for hours. So, in reality, you are 45 minutes away. On the other hand, you may be 50 km away, but if you’re going to drive on a highway, you’re just ~40 minutes away driving at 80 kmph.

Communicating distance in time makes more sense.

Some of this is natural to most of us; I just explained why it is so...

However, what I’m about to say next would be considered blasphemous! But here we go.

Fahrenheit is better than Celsius

I’m Indian, in case you don’t already know. I’ve used Celsius for temperature measurements since childhood, and we’ve all been told that Celsius is better than other metrics. So much so that most of the world uses it. We all laugh at Americans for using Fahrenheit.

I’m here to tell you that the world is wrong, and the Americans are right. By the end of this blog, you will agree with me.

I was a Celsius supremacist, too, until I started working with and talking to American colleagues. I didn’t think much of it until all the first-5-minute Zoom banter about the weather started making much more sense.

Fahrenheit was intuitive. Celsius was confusing.

When my colleagues expressed any temperature/weather change in Fahrenheit, it felt like something changed. When I did the same in Celcius, it didn’t feel like much.

Let me explain.

Context: Just like for distance, let’s set the context first. The only time we humans talk about the temperature is when we discuss the weather. There’s almost no other instance where temperature would be relevant, barring cooking or baking. While Celsius might make more sense for science, it falls flat in the context of weather.
Human Experience: Fahrenheit is in line with the weather we experience daily. For instance, if the temperature goes from 27°C to 38°C, that sounds like it only went up a few points. But practically, you’d start sweating and be uncomfortable at 38°C, but at 27°C you’d be okay. The Celsius metric does not convey this contrast. On the other hand, the same exact temperature change in Fahrenheit would be 80°F to 101°F, making it feel like something significant happened, which is in line with the human experience.
Granularity: The temperature ranges from 10°C to 35°C in most places on Earth. That means Celsius gives us only 25 points on a scale to traverse. Fahrenheit is more granular, allowing for better contrast when discussing weather. In most places on Earth, the temperature would be 50°F to 95°F, giving us 45 points to traverse and convey contrast.
Intuitiveness & Comfort: When you say it’s 90°F, it immediately feels like that is hot weather, vs. 32.2°C doesn’t invoke the same feeling. Humans naturally think along a scale of 0 - 100, so understanding “closer to 100” as “hot” is more intuitive. Also, if you want to measure cooler temperatures, you must go in the negatives on the Celsius scale, which isn’t comfortable or intuitive.

In conclusion, Celsius is useless beyond the 25 points you use to measure daily temperature, rendering 75 points on the entire scale irrelevant for all practical use. On the other hand, Fahrenheit is a more straightforward, more user-friendly, and intuitive option for humans to use practically.

Fahrenheit is more SARAL... so to speak!

End of lecture.