Temperature Palindromes

Handy conversion between Fahrenheit and Celsius

I hope you were able to enjoy both vegetables and cake since last week. Now for one weird trick:

That’s me finally finding an easy way to do this. Prints

As someone who’s spent time—and has friends—on both sides of the Atlantic, I’ve often needed to understand temperatures in both Fahrenheit and Celsius.

Like learning a new language or switching between miles and kilometres, the best way is to immerse yourself in a new scale so you just know what 55°F or 24°C feels like. But if you haven't reached that point, it can be helpful to have a few conversion benchmarks.

Fahrenheit and Celsius Temperature Palindromes

These two temperature palindromes are handy markers for gauging temperatures in both Fahrenheit and Celsius—and they’re surprisingly accurate:

• 82°F is 28°C

• 61°F is 16°C

I'm partial to a palindrome—a word or number that is read the same backwards as forwards—and as far as I'm concerned, it makes these two much easier to remember.

How to Convert Fahrenheit to Celsius (and vice versa)

The actual formula to convert Fahrenheit to Celsius is:

C = (F – 32) x 5/9

This is because:

• The Fahrenheit scale starts at 32° higher than the Celsius scale. So, 32°F is 0°C.

• The 5/9 means that each degree Celsius is just under 2 degrees Fahrenheit—it's actually 1.8°F.

This is why the basic conversion from Fahrenheit to Celsius that I use is "Minus 32, divide by 2" (which handily rhymes).

It's not perfect because each degree Fahrenheit is not quite half of a degree Celsius, but it's pretty close.

Using this simplified formula for the palindrome figures gives:

• 82°F-32=50, divide 50/2 = 25°C (it's actually 27.8°C)

• 61°F-32=29, divide 29/2 = 14.5°C (it's actually 16.1°C)

If you don't fancy some mental maths, using the palindromes is not a bad starting point. If you see a temperature around 61°F, you know it's around 16°C, and a temperature around 82°F is going to be around 28°C.

Hope it's helpful!

Related Ideas to Temperature Palindromes

• Palindromes and Semordnilap

• I learned about 82–28 from my neighbour when I mentioned I was working on the sketch for Temperature Scales: Fahrenheit and Celsius. Some digging gave me the 61–16 point as well.

• The Fun Scale: three types of fun

• The Bortle Scale: the clarity of the night sky

• The Scoville Scale: chilli heat

• The Goldilocks Zone

• Word Spectrum

May your temperatures be in the Goldilocks Zone until next week,

Jono