On Sat, 22 Oct 2016 20:04:20 +0100, Bod wrote:

On 22/10/2016 18:29, wrote:
On Sat, 22 Oct 2016 16:45:34 +0100, Bod wrote:

Anu ideas why the USA hasn't changed to the Centigrade system?
Only a handful of countries use fahrenheit today.

Centigrade makes a much more logical system.
Centigrade: 0C is freezing and 100C is boiling.

If the only thing you are interested in is the state of distilled
water at sea level, I agree C is better. I use it in scientific
measurements regularly too but there are 50 million Americans who do
not want to be confused by two systems and it would take a while to
get them all switched over.
To start with we would need to buy about a billion new thermometers,
then learn what 30c means when we see that is what the pool is at.
There is also that issue of how precise F is compared to C without
resorting to fractions of a degree, mentioned above.

The UK didn't have any problems changing over. Anyway, most electronic
thermometers give you the choice to set C or F.

The billion I was talking about are not electronic. Most people over
30 have mechanical or spirit thermometers that are generally more
accurate than an electronic one, in spite of the precision implied.
When we had electronic thermometers at work, we calibrated them with a
mercury Bacharach and we just assumed the electronic one was an
indicator, not a real measurement.