eli5:- why do we use 3 different measurements for temperature??!

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The most accurate and scientific is the kelvin scale and the SI unit of temperature and maybe their were different scales used in different countries but why use all three of them everywhere. Like we can use USA using miles while other countries use kilometer. But they both are not used at a single time at a single place. But why use 3 scales at once?

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22 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

We don’t “use all three of them everywhere”. Most countries use Celsius. A few countries use Fahrenheit. Scientists use Kelvin.

Celsius and Fahrenheit are more useful than Kelvin because the ranges are more applicable for everyday use (such as weather and cooking). Kelvin on the other hand is more useful for certain sciences, so they use Kelvin there.

Anonymous 0 Comments

In order to establish the Kelvin scale you first need to know what is the absolute zero temperature, and historically that took some time for scientists to determine with enough precision. By that time the other scales (including Celsius/centigrade) had already been established. Also the centigrade scale is quite convenient in that the water freezing temperature is 0 and the boiling temperature is 100. Fahrenheit scar doesn’t have anything to redeem it, in my opinion.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Kelvin isn’t “the most accurate.” It’s literally just the Celsius scale shifted by an offset.

Celsius and Fahrenheit exist simply because two different people used two different basis of reference for their temperature systems (the freezing and boiling points of water and brine, respectively). Different countries then adopted whichever one they wanted, pretty much just like metric and imperial.

Kelvin came about because it was desirable to have a measure of temperature based on what temperature actually is: heat, which is the movement of atoms, rather than arbitrary phase change points of some specific material.

Anonymous 0 Comments

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Kelvin and Celsius is not comparable as they are used for two completely different things, even in scientific settings. Celsius is a far more convenient unit to use when working with temperatures around room temperature. Kelvin is mostly used in physics in order to make thermodynamic calculation easier. So there is no problems keeping both Kelvin and Celsius.

However Celsius and Fahrenheit is another story. They are both used in different domains for historic reasons. It would indeed be more convenient for everyone to switch to a single unit. People just keep using the unit they are used to as it is more convenient then switching. That is until it becomes more convenient to switch. And currently more people use Celcius then Fahrenheit and more people switch to Celsius then switch to Fahrenheit. So we are slowly migrating to Celsius and Fahrenheit will become historical.

There is a similar history with miles and kilometers although this is unrelated to the temperature scales. And as with temperatures more and more people are switching to metric. Even the US officially switched to metric in the 70s and all government agencies have been using metric internally since the 90s.

Anonymous 0 Comments

[Relevant XKCD](https://xkcd.com/927)

There’s more than 3 measures (some are obscure), and there’s no real reason other than what different cultures developed and cling to.

That said, whether you’re team Celsius or team Fahrenheit, we can all agree that no one wants to use Kelvin. For convenience, we at least want the range of ‘common’ temperatures to be a sensible range, like 0 to 100 or -20 to 40 or whatever. Kelvin is great for scientific purposes and horrible for daily use.

Anonymous 0 Comments

In order to establish the Kelvin scale you first need to know what is the absolute zero temperature, and historically that took some time for scientists to determine with enough precision. By that time the other scales (including Celsius/centigrade) had already been established. Also the centigrade scale is quite convenient in that the water freezing temperature is 0 and the boiling temperature is 100. Fahrenheit scar doesn’t have anything to redeem it, in my opinion.

Anonymous 0 Comments

We don’t. Most people use Celcius, a few people use Fahrenheit, a few more use Kelvin. No different to anything else, like miles/kilometres.

> The most accurate and scientific is the kelvin scale

No it’s not. They’re all as accurate as each-other, because decimals exist. They can all be as accurate as you want, depending on how many digits you write.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Kelvin isn’t “the most accurate.” It’s literally just the Celsius scale shifted by an offset.

Celsius and Fahrenheit exist simply because two different people used two different basis of reference for their temperature systems (the freezing and boiling points of water and brine, respectively). Different countries then adopted whichever one they wanted, pretty much just like metric and imperial.

Kelvin came about because it was desirable to have a measure of temperature based on what temperature actually is: heat, which is the movement of atoms, rather than arbitrary phase change points of some specific material.

Anonymous 0 Comments

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