The author states that the best system is the one you're used to, in his conclusion.
Earlier he says that he doesn't like the other system because it uses negative numbers for temperatures that aren't that cold and that also it's good to be able to avoid using negative numbers. Those seem like very subjective reasons to me.
Something very relative to where the author lived and developed the preference. This changes from person to person, and region to region. "Not that cold" could be -25C in Siberia (well... not with the recent heatwave) or +25C in Quatar.
It makes sense for the whole world to use a common measuring system (and not just for temperature), perhaps even one where 1 degree is equal to 1 degree Kelvin since this would fit better with the science crowd. But whatever point of reference is chosen it will definitely fall short of expectation in different parts of the world. The freezing point of water as the 0 is as good as any. Body temperature (~37C) could also be a universal 0 with plenty of advantages and disadvantages that I never considered.
37C as the universal would put these parts permanently in negative temperatures. Freezing point of water is a good one especially when you think of the effect ice has on so many things
True, one of the disadvantages I was thinking of is truly high magnitude lows and low highs. The scale would reasonably go from -100 to +15. It would be a universally familiar 0 point. I do agree that water freezing is a very practical point or reference if there's ever been one.
I don't think body temperature is very familiar in any other context. Nothing feels special about that temperature when I walk outside; it's just somewhere in the middle of "too hot".
Room temperature has benefits as a basis point, water freezing does too, everything else is much more arbitrary.
> Nothing feels special about that temperature when I walk outside; it's just somewhere in the middle of "too hot".
It's probably worse then that since "real feel" is strongly influenced by humidity or wind. What I meant is that body temperature is more or less universally applicable to all humans, something relatable but with no benefit over the freezing point of water.
Room temperature isn't that much better. It's a bit more useful than body temperature but far less precise, could be anything between 18 and 24 C depending on who you ask.
well, actually memorizing a number is probably not a problem. i realized that the real advantage is to be able to look whether the number is positive or negative without taking a close look at the actual value.
