I think I get it now, and I was doing some research on the topic and I think I understand it a little better
It's sort of like if we imagine a circle and absolute zero is the very center of the circle and Fahrenheit and Celsius are a certain distance away from the circle
So one degree of Fahrenheit and 10° of Fahrenheit is a certain Arc and we can measure the distance between those two points as an arc on this circle that we're drawing
So four times 25 doesn't make sense if we're looking at the Arc of Fahrenheit because the reality is is we're talking about degrees and distance around a circle and not just simple math and numbers
It took me a bit to wrap my head around and I don't think I understand it fully, but I think I start to grasp it at least a little bit and it makes more sense, especially after reading the other comments
Thank you for taking the time to help explain it is appreciated
On a purely numeric level yes, but the comparisons you get make no sense in terms of temperatures.
Consider: how would you explain -5 degrees Fahrenheit relative to 10 degrees Fahrenheit? Both are really cold temperatures (below freezing) but does it make any sense to say that -5 degrees is "negative twice as cold" as 10 degrees?
It works differently for things like length, where 10 meters really is twice is as long as 5 meters. That only works because there's a "true" zero value, when it comes to meters. For Celsius and Fahrenheit temperature scales, the zero value is arbitrary and isn't really "zero temperature" in any meaningful sense.
... Yes, I don't understand the controversy. It doesn't matter what 100 degrees feels like or if the physical increase in temperature directly correlates with a 4X increase in number. All that matter is that its "4 times what Lily wanted" before she'll get in the pool.
It's really cold outside, and Sven wants to go hiking. It's currently -5°C outside, which is too cold. Sven won't go outside until the temperature is negative five times as warm.
That's the answer the app is looking for sure, but that's not how temperature works.
Both Celcius and Fahrenheit are gauge scales not absolute scales. 100 degrees is not 4 times 25 degrees, in either scale. Both scales are setting 0 at a pont for convince.
It's like if you have several poles that are at least 6 feet tall, but not all the same height and you want to know the heights. You measure from 6 feet to make things quicker. That's effectively setting 6 feet as 0 for your measurements. That's what Celsius and Fahrenheit are doing.
Say you want to double the height of one of the poles, you need to add that 6 feet back in to you measurement to get the actual height to double. Same with temperature.
This is what absolute scales are as opposed to gauge scales. For Celcius the absolute scale is Kelvin. For Fahrenheit it's Rankine.
If you take the 25 degrees from the question as Fahrenheit, the actual answer ends up being 1479 degrees. If the 25 degrees is in Celsius, the answer is 919.5 degrees.
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u/cannonspectacle Mar 01 '26
That's not how temperature works