Fact of the Day: 10/06/2022
Many countries use Celsius as the common unit for measurement of temperature. Why does the United States use the Fahrenheit system? Vox.com says, “It made sense to switch over, both because the metric system is more intuitive and because adopting the same system as other countries would make scientific cooperation much easier. Congress passed a law, the 1975 Metric Conversion Act, that was theoretically supposed to begin the process of metrication . . . The law crashed and burned. Because it made metrication voluntary, rather than mandatory, the public had a major say in the matter. And lots of people didn’t want to have to learn new systems for temperatures or weights” (Beauchamp par. 15-16). For anyone who uses the metric system, an easy way to understand Fahrenheit is to remember that 100˚F is pretty much the average body temperature of a human, so numbers close to 100˚F, such as 90˚F, are close to 37.8˚C. Hope you find use for this knowledge, and have an awesome summer! 🥳🌻
Reference(s): https://www.vox.com/2015/2/16/8031177/america-fahrenheit
Fact Author: Durga I.
Fact Editor: Ace
New to Pearson Online Academy? Learn More Here.