Temperature Technicalities

[lchyi]

"10 degrees below zero." I had always thought (until now) that this means 22 degrees farenheit or negative-whatever-the-conversion-is degrees celcius. I thought "zero" was a term for freezing even though Americans do not usually measure temperature in celcius, the phrase "XX below zero" still means below the 0 degree celcius or freezing. By saying "10 degrees below zero" does that mean I'm saying -10 farenheit since I live in the States? I understand that below zero implies you using celcius and/or implies that you're talking about -10 farenheit, but I had always thought, "below zero" was a figure of speech. I mean, who says it's "10 below 32?"

 

[jagec]

yes, in the US "10 below zero" is -10 degF. "zero" is a number, not the freezing point of water.

 

[lchyi]

bleh, I've been reared the wrong way.

 

[silverpig]

Stupid Fahrenheit system

 

[meltdown75]

try growing up where i did, where the TV stations are US (Detroit). when i went to school we learned the metric system and when i came home and watched TV, it was imperial units.

 

[Eli]

Huh? I don't really understand.

10 degrees below 0 is -10ºF.

Ooh.. LOL.

So you thought when people said "10 degrees below 0", you thought they were talking celcius.. so you thought they meant it was 22ºF???

bwahahahah.. that's funny sh!t.

no.

32ºF = 32ºF.
0ºF = 0ºF
-10ºF = -10ºF...... lol