Monday, November 27, 2006

F'n cold

McMurray cold snap.
Balaclavas, block heaters.
Absolute zero.*


So I'm a bit of a science geek. I remember when I was learning about temperature in school and I asked my Dad about the logic behind the Fahrenheit temperature scale. You see, Celsius was understandable: zero is set at something basic like water freezing and 100 at water boiling. Kelvin: set zero at the absolute coldest possible temperature and go up from there! My logical little brain could understand all that. ...But Fahrenheit? This bidness made no sense whatsoever. My Dad explained (and this is the equivalent of bedtime stories for us nerds) that at the time this dude Fahrenheit was inventing temperature he also set his scale at what he was able to measure as the coldest possible temperature. I just looked it up in my handy dandy conversion table and 0 F is equal to... MINUS EIGHTEEN CELSIUS (aka summer in Northern Alberta). That was the best he could do? Come on! It was -30 when I got off the plane last night in Fort McMurray and my nose hairs haven't unstuck since.

*I wanted to add many more "F'n" expletives, but there are just too few syllables in f'n haikus.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

you are the cutest haiku maker of all time!

if it makes you feel ANY better, in ottawa we have freezing rain today which is worse than cold because as soon as the weather changes drivers forget everything they ever learned or did and are complete morons behind the wheel :)

i never understood Farenheit - i never even tried, i said screw that if you can't make logical sense then you can keep your dang farenheit in the United States with all the other morons :)

-18 is also quite close to the temperatures of summer in Sudbury. Sudbury - jess, please come to Sudbury for christmas! The Cyr parties are just never the same without you :(

Bree

Anonymous said...

As if it is that cold where you are. London is a balmy +11C! You would love it here - after every meeting we go to the pub.

I miss you!