Ah, TIL that Celsius is "non-multiplicative". From ChatGPT:
"When using Celsius as the unit for temperature, it is not meaningful to say that one temperature is a certain number of times higher than another. The Celsius scale is based on the freezing point (0°C) and boiling point (100°C) of water, which are not absolute values. Thus, the Celsius scale has negative values, and simply multiplying temperatures does not provide an accurate representation of relative differences.
If you want to compare temperatures in a more meaningful way, you should use the Kelvin scale. The Kelvin scale is an absolute temperature scale, with its zero point (0 K) representing absolute zero. In this scale, it is appropriate to say that one temperature is a certain number of times higher than another because the scale starts at an absolute zero point. To convert Celsius temperatures to Kelvin, add 273.15 to the Celsius value. Once the temperatures are in Kelvin, you can then make meaningful comparisons using multiplication or division."
Yeah, kelvin strictly speaking, but for reactors on earth (not in 3 kelvin outer space) with a baseline earth-ambient temperature, perhaps multiplicative C is valid, very approximately? I don't know, I guess I'm asking.
Temperature, especially in this context, relates to energy. The relative energy isn't 8x.
> boiling point is more than 8 times higher than water’s, so it can absorb all the extra heat
This is a bit like saying that a skyscraper is 8 times as tall as an apartment building, so the gravity is much weaker up there. Obviously not as extreme a mistake, but that's why people are jumping on it.
The Celsius scale is an "interval scale" while the Kelvin scale is a "ratio scale". One cannot take ratios of Celsius values as ratios are not even defined for that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_of_measurement
Howso? If the conversion to Kelvin is additive (as opposed to something more complicated), and multiplying in Kelvin is fine, then how is multiplying effectively-unsigned in Celsius not fine?
For a given baseline, perhaps yes?. Kelvin has its baseline inherent, for C you can pick what you like if you're clear about it. Perhaps. (Edit: and using only positive or negative temps as pointed out above)
When I say multiply by n, what I'm really doing is applying a delta of (n - 1) times my distance to the origin.
The origin with celsius isn't at zero, so you're prevented from doing what you were pretending was multiplication (at least in the most natural way of doing it).
Obviously you can negate your offset, multiply and reapply your delta.
In the previous paragraph he's said that water boils at 100 C