My Crank Idea

There are all kinds of crank ideas out there. Some folks believe in aliens; some believe in Esperanto. Some would like calendar reform---which is definitely a good idea. But however reasonable calendricorrection may be, it would take Julius Caesar to push it through---and none of us want his ilk again. My crank idea is far from the worst.

It's just this. We should use the Kelvin scale for temperature all the time and forget those arbitrary Fahrenheit and Celsius scales. The Kelvin scale is the physically well motivated scale and the one you have to use in almost all real physics calculations. It might be objected that saying 273 K as the freezing point of water and 296 K for comfortable human temperature is awkward. But simply say two-73 and two-96 as one would for a price and it trips off the tongue. And 300 K (80 degrees F) would provide a nice fiducial temperature between pleasant and beginning to be hot.

No one feels sentimental about Fahrenheit the way the do about May.

David J. Jeffery, 702-895-4050, jeffery@physics.unlv.edu

This file was last updated 2003jul18 Friday