this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2026
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[–] Jiral@lemmy.org 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Why would anyone care about -17°C? It is an arbitrary number without any relevance. The only relevance it has to you is if you think in Fahrenheit where it is an arbitrary zero point. Not even 38°C is a number you frequently hear used, unless its seriously hot and it happens to be the ambient temperature. Human body temperature is more relevant, but it isn't a round number in either of the measurement systems, nor is it identical between individuals either.

That "higher fidelity" argument just makes me wonder if some people don't know the decimal system. 22.7°C, there you go. Most people don't need that level of precision but it if they do, they simply add a position after the comma and are done with it.

[–] SirQuack@feddit.nl 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Most people don't need that level of precision

Until they have a fever, then 38.1 and 38.9 can be significant.

[–] Jiral@lemmy.org 1 points 2 days ago

I have the impression you don't know how rounding works. The two temperatures you quote would be different even with only full numbers.

In any case, for the case of body temperature, you do exactly that, use as many positions after the comma as you want. (Usually more the one is pointless though as you can reliably measure that anyway)