No, the difference is that if you double a kelvin number, you have quantifiably doubled the heat. If you double a Celsius or Fahrenheit number, you have not quantifiably doubled the heat… the number does not objectively count an amount of something.
Think meters. A meter measures an exact length. Two meters is double one meter.
Celsius doesn’t do that. Celsius is a scale between two amounts of heat.
The equivalent for distance would be if we had a scale where 0 degrees distance was equal to 582.7762 meters, and 100 degrees distance was equal to 721.5323 meters. Each degree between 0 and a hundred is then a slice of that range.
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
I thought Kelvins were measured in radians not degrees?
Iunnrais@piefed.social 1 day ago
Nope, Kelvins are a countable unit, like meters. Celsius and Fahrenheit are not.
floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Is the difference that they can go negative or…? I never quite understand what makes them “degrees”
Iunnrais@piefed.social 1 day ago
No, the difference is that if you double a kelvin number, you have quantifiably doubled the heat. If you double a Celsius or Fahrenheit number, you have not quantifiably doubled the heat… the number does not objectively count an amount of something.
Think meters. A meter measures an exact length. Two meters is double one meter.
Celsius doesn’t do that. Celsius is a scale between two amounts of heat.
The equivalent for distance would be if we had a scale where 0 degrees distance was equal to 582.7762 meters, and 100 degrees distance was equal to 721.5323 meters. Each degree between 0 and a hundred is then a slice of that range.