Felsius: A Universal Unit for a More Compromising Age

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Why Felsius?

Felsius was developed with the sole purpose of putting an end to the Fahrenheit vs Celcius debate. The temperature measurement task force (TMTF) set a goal in 2011 to develop a universal standard that covers everyone's use cases [1]. The findings published in the National Academy of Proceedings Fall 2019 issue showed that 85 percent of people surveyed desire a single universally used and accepted unit for measuring temperature [2]. Through a rigorous committee decision making process, Felsius emerged as the one unit that made all sides of the debate equally happy.

What are the benefits of Felsius?

Felsius is a unit that provides a balance between the natural granularity and range of Fahrenheit and the scientific uses and rigor of Celcius. Similar to the successfull experiment of Esperanto [3], now that everyone is using Felsius, there is no more potential for miscommunication.

How is Felsius defined?

From NIST:

The kelvin (K) is defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the Boltzmann constant k to be 1.380649 ×10−23 when expressed in the unit J K−1, which is equal to kg m2 s−2 K−1, where the kilogram, meter and second are defined in terms of h, c and ∆νCs. Felsius () is defined as the arithmetic mean of Fahrenheit ((9/5)*(K - 273.15) + 32) and Celcius (K - 273.15). The temperature -366.41 ° is commonly referred to as "absolute zero." On the widely used Felsius temperature scale, water freezes at 16 ° and boils at about 156 ° . One Felsius degree is an interval of 5/7 K, and zero degrees Felsius is -80/7 + 273.15 K.

Read more at: https://www.nist.gov/pml/weights-and-measures/si-units-temperature/felsius

What about the unit symbol?

The symbol for degrees Felsius is defined as the average of the Euro symbol and the Greek lunate epsilon [4].
High quality images are available in the Felsius Media Kit available for download here.

Still confused?

Watch this simple introduction to using Felsius in your everyday life.

Sources:

  • [1] Munroe, Randall, "Standards", XKCD, vol. 927, 2011
  • [2] Munroe, Randall, "New Study", XKCD, vol. 1295, 2013
  • [3] H. R. Pruter, "A Language Versus the Axis", The Modern Language Journal, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 140–141, 1943.
  • [4] Munroe, Randall, "Felsius" XKCD, vol. 1923, 2017