Degrees C and F

[White Fox]

There were a couple of posts on another thread that got into degrees C and F. As stated there, few think in degrees F in Canada any more as the Centigrade degrees just make more sense. Just thought some might be interested in the Canadian conversion. Almost no one will convert back and forth between C and F. We still have a basic understanding of degrees F, but that is pretty much gone completely.

 

+40 degrees. Sun and heat are lethal. Go inside in the shade and wait til it cools down. If you see a dog chase a cat they will both be walking!

 

+30 degrees. Darned hot. Still bearable if a person is in good health. If sunny it is still beautiful but very hot.

 

+20 degrees. Just beginning to hit comfortable weather with short sleeve shirt and short pants.

 

+ 10 degrees C. Light jacket weather long or short sleeve shirt and long pants.

 

0 degrees C. Freezing point.

 

Minus 10 degrees C. Good outdoor sports weather if it is not windy with snow blowing.

 

Minus 20 degrees C. Still Fur weather. If humid it is very cold and you need be very careful.

 

Minus 40 degrees. Same in both C and F

 

In Canada many fought the change to metric, but you would find almost no one today who does not at least accept it. In some areas the "Old farts" are still not fully converted. Carpenters who use metric still use two by fours. It is a name just like oak or ash. After all a two by four was not two inches by four inches anyhow. Hasn't been for probably 60 years or more. But that is the one industry that had trouble changing somewhat but today a high percentage of younger carpenters are metric only, with some older ones preferring it as well. But even some measurements that were thought to probably never change have almost completely disappeared. Farmers for instance almost never talk "acres" any more. They always talk liters for instance. Shippers always talk Tonnes. You could probably not find one in Ontario who talk Tons.

 

The reason for conversion was simple. Our factories were just losing too much business when dealing with Europe. Too many things were affected, and now we are able to trade with those folks more easily with less expenses. Plus we have a far, far superior system to work with. Even hospitals at first screamed about metric on thermometers as the divisions an the thermometer were too big. But they soon realized they could simply bring it to the first decimal, and suddenly it was more accurate and not less.

 

Anyhow, just a bit of info. Now a huge segment of the population cannot even remember when the conversion was made, as they were too young, or not even born yet. We do all laugh though when someone comes over and drives 100 miles per hour on a 100 km/hr roadway and gets caught. We always realize it was a convenient excuse!

[JGalanos]

Minus 40 degrees. Same in both C and F

 

 

We do all laugh though when someone comes over and drives 100 miles per hour on a 100 km/hr roadway

 

On my last trip to Toronto, I drove a rental car picked up in the US. It wasn't until after I crossed the border that I noticed the speedometer on my American made vehicle listed MPH only -- No KPH secondary unit of measure. I spent the balance of the trip multiplying the posted speed limit by (my best guess) .60 and managed to avoid being pulled over.

[White Fox]

All cars produced over here either have both visible at the same time, or you can switch back and forth. Just another of many reasons why the North American companies are in trouble right now. Off shore cars probably all have the foresite to show both.

 

As for speeds. The general rule people use over here is to set cruise at 9 km over on most roads and in almost all cases including all but the middle of towns you are ok. The point 6 is a good rule of thumb. As for distances as it is easy to do in your head, etc. If we want to go back and forth, you just take miles. Multiply by two and subtract a bit and you are in the area. Same thing as .6

 

Don't know about US, but the big deterrent up here to speeding is insurance. Fines are generally not huge. i.e. you might get a fine of $200 or even way more but not in the thousands unless you are really going crazy. BUT, if you have two problems, your insurance will go sky high. A fellow I know had a fine once going about 11 km per hour over the speed limit. That is the equivalent of getting fined for 62 on a 55 mph area on I-75. Then, one day he got stuck with his car in his lane. It froze harder that night and ice formed under the tires. Wind came along in middle of the night and blew the car in the ditch causing a lot of damage. Since that was a second offence, even though he was not even near it nor the engine running, and the car was sitting right in his lane, his insurance went sky high. Dishonest as Hell, but nothing he could do about it! He had people who had saw the car sitting there, etc. What happened was obvious and verifiable.

 

W

[Worker 11811]

Oh, C'Mon! Don't you guys know how to convert to metric?

 

[image]http://homepage.mac.com/randystankey/.Music/BnD.png[/image]

(Click the picture!)

 

Didn't you learn anything?

 

[White Fox]

Worker, we used to do that all the time. Now, we just "Live in Metric" pretty much totally. We never convert any more.

 

W