this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 85 points 5 days ago (2 children)

0 Kelvin = 0 Rankine

Also, both °R and °Ra are Rankine. So 3 of the 5 people in the bottom picture also agree.

[–] davidgro@lemmy.world 32 points 5 days ago (1 children)

And the other two can shake at -40

[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago

They shake under the table, but try to keep up appearances.

[–] Redjard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I think none of K, R, and Ra may be pointing at each other.

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[–] expatriado@lemmy.world 36 points 5 days ago (1 children)

°RA sound like the sun's temperature

[–] MasterOKhan@lemmy.ca 10 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 5 days ago

As far as equations go, "one degree RA equals 5500 degree Celsius divided by joking" is unusually abstract 🤔

[–] FelixCress@lemmy.world 36 points 5 days ago (7 children)

From John Bazell “In metric, one milliliter of water occupies one cubic centimeter, weighs one gram, and requires one calorie of energy to heat up by one degree centigrade—which is 1 percent of the difference between its freezing point and its boiling point. An amount of hydrogen weighing the same amount has exactly one mole of atoms in it. Whereas in the American system, the answer to ‘How much energy does it take to boil a room-temperature gallon of water?’ is ‘Go fuck yourself,’ because you can’t directly relate any of those quantities.”

[–] BastingChemina@slrpnk.net 19 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

I was in a situation similar to this one in real life: having to adjust the salt level in a pool.

In metric:

The pool is 8*4 m long and 2m deep on average, the current salt level is 2g/l and the salt comes in 20kg bags.

How many bags of salts do I need to pour in the pool to adjust the salt level to at least 3g/l ?

Answer:

! The pool contains 8m4m2m= 64m³ or 64000l of water, I need an extra 1g/l of salt per litres so 64000l*1g/l = 64000g or 64 kg. So with 4 bags I'll have enough salt.

In imperial:

The pool is 20*10ft long and 5ft deep on average, the current salt level is 2000ppm and the salt comes in 40lbs bags.

How many bags of salts do I need to pour in the pool to adjust the salt level to at least 3000ppm?

Answer:

! I'm just gonna drive to the store with my truck to pick up 2 bags at the time and see if it's enough, no way I'm doing the calculation.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Home pools here are almost never saltwater.

We simply add chlorine tabs until the pH is the correct color on the strips. Even if we knew it would be 62.4 lbs of salt, it's not like you can buy a 62.4 lb bag of salt.

But yeah, it is a lot harder to do applied math in the US, which is why science here went metric :)

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[–] ch00f@lemmy.world 22 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (3 children)

-40C = -40F

Also 0lbs does not equal 0kg when there’s no gravity.

[–] FiskFisk33@startrek.website 18 points 5 days ago (3 children)

huh?

Mass doesnt change with gravity

[–] ramenshaman@lemmy.world 15 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Typically, lbs is not mass, it's weight/force.

[–] FiskFisk33@startrek.website 11 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

isn't that lbf?

The pund itself is defined as 0.45359237 Kg

[–] ramenshaman@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Lbs can be lbf or lbm, but usually is referring to lbf, which is 0.4536 kg at 1g.

[–] FiskFisk33@startrek.website 8 points 5 days ago

when comparing to kg I will assume the mass unit, since comparing a mass value to a force has no meaning.

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[–] expatriado@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago (1 children)

no mass multiplied with gravity still results in no force, 0 Lb = 0 Kg; 0 Lbf = 0 N

[–] ch00f@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago

Yes, but 1kg also results in no force, so it's a trivial statement.

[–] Linearity@infosec.pub 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Gravity? What does that have to do with mass

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (6 children)

Nothing in this context, but it can have a lot to do with force, for which pounds is the US customary unit.

[–] FiskFisk33@startrek.website 10 points 5 days ago

when compared to a value in Kg, the only logical interpretation is the mass pound. If it were lbf, the si unit conversion would be Newtons.

Having the same name for two different, but easily mixed up units is really annoying haha

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[–] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 17 points 5 days ago (6 children)

Kelvin is objectively the most accurate. Celsius fans cope.

[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 44 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (8 children)

Er... every system of measurement is accurate, tautologically.

0°F = 0°F because 0°F = 0°F, by definition.

[–] marcos@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

I dunno. I wouldn't be surprised if somebody took the time to invent fuzzy measurement unities.

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[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 15 points 5 days ago

For some reason my brain dropped the 'L'.

Sitting here wondering how Kevin does it...

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

They're both calibrated against a stupid wet molecule that carbon based life on this planet is addicted to.

Introducing: the Nihon. 0Nh is the freezing point of Nihonium at 1 bar pressure, and 100Nh is the boiling point. Well, theoretical freezing and boiling points. Nihonium is one of those elements that doesn't stick around long enough to be studied. But we thought really hard about it, did some shit with particle accelerators, and we're pretty sure these numbers are good.

[–] FiskFisk33@startrek.website 5 points 5 days ago

The bar is defined to be close to the atmospheric pressure of one random planet called earth, why choose that as your pressure unit?

[–] warm@kbin.earth 7 points 5 days ago

I'm coping, Celsius is just as accurate as Kelvin, because it based on it.

Kelvin - 273.15 = Celsius

It's a nice day today. Can't be more than 300 degrees

I'm not so sure

[–] madjo@feddit.nl 4 points 5 days ago

Depends on your measuring tool. A thermometer that measures in K but has an error margin of +2 to -2 K is less accurate than a thermometer that measures in F and has an error margin van -0.1 and +0.1 F

[–] Tattorack@lemmy.world 15 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Kelvin and degrees Celsius are friends, though.

[–] burntbacon@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 4 days ago

Not according to the meme. 0 K is -273(.15) C.

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[–] omxxi@feddit.org 12 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Would be better ordered like F° C° K° R°

[–] 0_0j@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

You mean K° F° C° R°epeat

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[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago (4 children)

Fahrenheit is vibe temperature. It just feels good use bigger numbers to describe being very hot. "It's 30 degrees outside" sounds hot but "it's 100 degrees outside" is more expressive, like built in exaggeration. That could be why it is preferred by Americans.

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago (6 children)

No, it's just because the US never really converted to the metric system. Degrees Fahrenheit are zeroed at the freezing temperature of brine, and there are exactly 180 degrees from freezing to boiling water because that was an easy number to divide (like the 360 degrees in a circle).

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[–] warm@kbin.earth 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Farenheit isnt a vibe temperature, its just a bullshit unit of measurment that stuck around in the US.

If you wanted a vibe temperature, why not have 0 be comfortable room temperature and then negatives be colder and positives be warmer?

Or just use Celsius like the rest of the world.

[–] SapphironZA@sh.itjust.works 6 points 5 days ago

They are called Canadians. The scale works like that for them.

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[–] sirico@feddit.uk 6 points 5 days ago

Use molecular wiggles mw

[–] Iron_Lynx@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

there's a whole host of temperature scales, some of which look similar, some look different, some scale the same at the same temperature difference but have different zeroes, and at least one works backwards. Thank goodness there's only three you're likely to see in the wild these days, I'd hate to have to keep in mind whether or not those degrees are not Celsius or Fahreheit, but... idk, Newton? Réamur? Rømer? Delisle?

[–] KittyCat@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

More like only 4 than 3, at least in the us, I unfortunately run into Rankine at my job on occasion.

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