Do Americans understand celsius?

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The United States is the only major country where fahrenheit is still in widespread use. Do most Americans understand celsius or is it some strange measurement only really used by scientists? Almost nobody in Britain under the age of 30 knows fahrenheit and it seems to only be used by the older generation.

I know most conversions from fahrenheit in 10's Centigrade:

10˚C = 50˚F
20˚C = 68˚F
30˚C = 86˚F
40˚C = 104˚F

The ones who care enough, understand it, but there is no point, because we don't use it here. I still say that starting now everyone should use the same measuring system, I don't care if it's fahrenheit or celsius, metric or standard, I just want everyone to use the same thing, so there will be less confusion, and this thread wouldn't exist.

I have some idea of celcius and no 0 is freezing in it but don't convert back and forth in my head. Although Why can't we use kelvins?

"Double it and add 30."

I am not for sure why we Americans don't use the metric (Si) units of measurements. Except for in science, hi-tech and medical, outside of that, We still use the imperial system.

The metric (Si) system is is a lot easier to use because everything is multiples of 10's and 1000's

converting between Fahrenheit and Centigrade:
F = C/(5/9)+32
C = F-32(5/9)

If the Celsius scale were imposed by law (also other metric quantities) people would catch on fast.

Converting Celsius to Fahrenheit and back is no big deal.

ruveyn

It's not all that difficult to understand. Both scales are linear so converting between them is quite easy.

I use it at my work quite often.

thats an incorrect statement. Many specific industries worldwide still use the "imperial" system for their activities. For example, tires are marked in inches for their diameter and cm for width. There have been tried at fully metric tires but there were just too many cars using non metric ones for it to be possible to switch. Which brings usto why the US hasnt and cant switch. Theres just too many people to be able to fully teach everyone. And while yes every student learns it in school theres too large a workforce using the imperial system for it to just be thrown out in one day

Not quite - multiply by 9, divide by 5 and add 32 to convert C to F.
I always have to translate stuff from Fahrenheit. It means nothing to me.

I was talking about fahrenheit. Not imperial in general...

Imperial is still in widespread use in the UK and most young teenagers are familiar with several imperial measurements and use them in everyday life, but fahrenheit isn't one of them. Do American schools teach fahrenheit or celsius?

Dont have kids, and have been out of school for a long time. I imagine that they teach both systems these days.

But what matters is what the weatherman on TV uses. And in America TV meteriologists use only farenhight. Two international news outlets I get do the entire world's weather. Al Jazeera uses only celsius. But Russia Today gives both figures on the Map (one above the other). For a long stretch of summer the air temperature in both Baghdad and in Tikrit was around 110 Farenhight. While in Beirut, Tel Aviv, and in Cairo (same or more southerly latitudes) it was only in the nineties! Interesting educational tidbit.

back in the stoned age [70s] we were supposed to join the rest of the world in the celcius club, but the late columnist bob greene started a little organization called WAM [We Ain't Metric] that caught on like wildfire, and millions of voters contacted their representatives and the rest is fahrenheit history.

That's the reason why I asked the question in the first place. Weather reports in the American media are almost always in fahrenheit and never use celsius. Is it because the younger generation doesn't understand celsius because it isn't taught in schools or does the media not have the courage to use celsius in case it outrages too many senior citizens? Is there popular support for the use of celsius in cities with large foreigner and immigrant populations who are more familiar with it?

It's the "quickie" method. Does the average guy really care if it's 10 degrees C vs 10.x?