The United States is the only major country in the world that continues to use the Fahrenheit temperature scale. Most Americans are not accustomed to using the Celsius temperature scale. And most visitors to the United States are not very familiar with the Fahrenheit scale.
In the Fahrenheit scale, 20 degrees is well below freezing. With the Celsius scale, on the other hand, 20 degrees is a very comfortable temperature.
The formulas used to convert from one temperature scale to the other are too complex for most of us to calculate mentally. There is an easy method to change between the Fahrenheit and Celsius temperature scales. It’s a technique that only works for people who are familiar with New York and its subway system.
Here’s how it works. Almost all New Yorkers know the station stops in Manhattan for the #6 subway line. We all know that, starting at 33rd Street, the next station stops traveling north are: 42nd Street, 51st Street, 59th Street, 68th Street, 77th Street, 86th Street, 96th Street, and 103rd Street. Think of those station stops between 33rd Street and 103rd Streets as Fahrenheit temperatures. At 33rd Street (33 degrees Fahrenheit), the corresponding temperature is 0 degrees Celsius. (OK, it’s really 0.55 degrees Celsius!)
For each station stop going uptown on the #6 subway line, add 5 degrees Celsius. At 42nd Street stop (42 degrees Fahrenheit), you have roughly 5 degrees Celsius. At the next station stop, 51st Street (51 degrees Fahrenheit), you arrive at roughly 10 degrees Celsius. One stop further uptown to 59th Street (59 degrees Fahrenheit) gives you 15 degrees Celsius. This works for all the stations until you reach 103rd Street (103 degrees Fahrenheit) corresponding roughly to 40 degrees Celsius, a temperature reached in New York’s record breaking heat wave in August, 2006
How accurate is this conversion method? At most, the conversion is off by only a fraction of a degree. In some cases, the conversion is 100% accurate!
If you are familiar with New York and the #6 subway line, use this fast, easy technique to speak confidently about temperatures with anyone…from any culture!
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