-8 > -7



  • If you're reading this good news! The forum titles are fully sanatized. On a similar theme to todays post on tempurature and weather, my dad of all people, pointed me to this news article. Part of the content of which I will post here:

    A LOTTERY scratchcard has been withdrawn from sale by Camelot -
    because players couldn't understand it.

    The Cool Cash game - launched on Monday - was taken out of shops
    yesterday after some players failed to grasp whether or not they had
    won.

    To qualify for a prize, users had to scratch away a window to reveal a
    temperature lower than the figure displayed on each card. As the game
    had a winter theme, the temperature was usually below freezing.

    But the concept of comparing negative numbers proved too difficult for
    some Camelot received dozens of complaints on the first day from
    players who could not understand how, for example, -5 is higher than
    -6.

    Tina Farrell, from Levenshulme, called Camelot after failing to win
    with several cards.

    The 23-year-old said: "On one of my cards it said I had to find
    temperatures lower than -8. The numbers I uncovered were -6 and -7 so
    I thought I had won, and so did the woman in the shop. But when she
    scanned the card the machine said I hadn't.

    "I phoned Camelot and they fobbed me off with some story that -6 is
    higher - not lower - than -8 but I'm not having it."

    A Camelot spokeswoman said the game was withdrawn after reports that
    some players had not understood the concept.

    Maybe not a WTFTM per se, but a human WTF never the less.



  • This is ... sad

     

    This is SO GODDAMN SAD. 



  • I read this the other day. This line: "I phoned Camelot and they fobbed me off with some story that -6 is
    higher - not lower - than -8 but I'm not having it."

     

    Had me laughing for hours.

    Even better was in the comments there was this girl who wrote something calling the woman stupid (fair enough) and how she was only 15 and how embarrassing it was to have used her real name, etc. Then, she signed it off with her own real name. But She Had Written Every Word With An Initial Capital.

    Lottery woman may be rubbish at maths, but you're rubbish at English, love.



  • It's often times woman careless of minus matter. They thought the BIGGER the number, the BIGGER the minus. That's the meaning of BIGGER to them.



  • ------------------------6



  • @dhromed said:

    ------------------------6

    thats 6 :P  -----------------------6 is -6



  • This proves that the lotteries are a tax on people who can't do math.

     



  • Actually, maybe they should just reissue the cards with the temperature scale changed to Kelvins.



  • the lottery - 18+ and up, no HS diploma required.

     

    they should make a lottery ticket in Camelot where you have to multiply fractions in response to this. 



  • The lottery is my favorite tax.  It's a tax on stupid people!



  • @Vechni said:

    the lottery - 18+ and up, no HS diploma required.

     they should make a lottery ticket in Camelot where you have to multiply fractions in response to this. 

    Or simply adding fractions (multiplication is too easy to get right by accident). Can you imagine the outrage? "Who do they think they are telling me that 1/4 plus 1/2 isn't 1/6. Do they think I'm retarded or something?"



  • @valerion said:

    Actually, maybe they should just reissue the cards with the temperature scale changed to Kelvins.

    Ha!  Awesome.  We should have more science related lotteries.  The skill testing questions could actually be hard.  Maybe you could buy a lottery ticket with a picture of an HVAC system, then scratch off a number of heating/chiller units.  Some quick duct flow calcs, a little thermo and psychrometrics to check if the units you uncovered will handle the load of the system.

    I think that could be really popular. 



  • I prefer the Zen lottery ticket, where you have to not scratch anything, to match the empty box below.



  • "I phoned Camelot and they fobbed me off with some story that -6 is
    higher - not lower - than -8 but I'm not having it."

    I believe the esteemed Mr. Darwin might be able to help us with this problem: 

      Congratulations!  You've won a free holiday. 

      Now, would you like to go somewhere that's a cool minus one degree C, or would you prefer your holiday destination to be a scorching minus forty?  Remember, it's entirely your choice, but I'm sure you'd rather go to the place with the higher temperature, wouldn't you?

     



  • @valerion said:

    Actually, maybe they should just reissue the cards with the temperature scale changed to Kelvins.

    Actually, thats not such a bad idea, just use Fahrenheit. -8°C = 17°F. Althought that might be against European law.



  • I always used to get confused by American films when they'd say something like "the temperature is eight below".  I thought, why don't they just say "minus eight" like we do?  I eventually realised that they meant 24 degrees Fahrenheit, ie 8 below freezing, but were too lazy to say "24 degrees fahrenheit".  Then I thought, if they want a temperature system which is easily related to the freezing point of water, why don't they use Celsius?   I still haven't found the answer to that one.



  • @Crispy Duck said:

    I always used to get confused by American films when they'd say something like "the temperature is eight below".  I thought, why don't they just say "minus eight" like we do?  I eventually realised that they meant 24 degrees Fahrenheit, ie 8 below freezing, but were too lazy to say "24 degrees fahrenheit".  Then I thought, if they want a temperature system which is easily related to the freezing point of water, why don't they use Celsius?   I still haven't found the answer to that one.



    I don't remember any cases of temperature being described that way, but it may happen. I've always figured the big appeal of fahrenheit is it limits the number of times we have to talk about negative temperatures. 0 degrees Fahrenheit is REALLY cold (0 Celsius isn't really that cold at all), unless you live in some of those northern states you don't see it much.



  • @valerion said:

    I read this the other day. This line: "I phoned Camelot and they fobbed me off with some story that -6 is
    higher - not lower - than -8 but I'm not having it."

     

    Had me laughing for hours.

    Even better was in the comments there was this girl who wrote something calling the woman stupid (fair enough) and how she was only 15 and how embarrassing it was to have used her real name, etc. Then, she signed it off with her own real name. But She Had Written Every Word With An Initial Capital.

    Lottery woman may be rubbish at maths, but you're rubbish at English, love.

     

    Reminds me of a story regarding some company's Customer Service not being willing to ship to New Mexico because they only shipped to US states. 



  • @Crispy Duck said:

    I always used to get confused by American films when they'd say something like "the temperature is eight below".  I thought, why don't they just say "minus eight" like we do?  I eventually realised that they meant 24 degrees Fahrenheit, ie 8 below freezing, but were too lazy to say "24 degrees fahrenheit".  Then I thought, if they want a temperature system which is easily related to the freezing point of water, why don't they use Celsius?   I still haven't found the answer to that one.

     

    No, they mean -8 F.



  • No, 8 below would be 8 below 0, as in -8. 24 degrees would be 24 degrees. Anywhere north of say, Maryland, it would not be unusual to have at least a week of sub-zero weather around January or February. It's only November and already I have ice on my car when I get out of work at 6 pm, if it rained at all during the day.



  • @Crispy Duck said:

    I always used to get confused by American films when they'd say something like "the temperature is eight below".  I thought, why don't they just say "minus eight" like we do?  I eventually realised that they meant 24 degrees Fahrenheit, ie 8 below freezing, but were too lazy to say "24 degrees fahrenheit".  Then I thought, if they want a temperature system which is easily related to the freezing point of water, why don't they use Celsius?   I still haven't found the answer to that one.

    No, Americans say 8 below to indicate 8 below zero Fahrenheit. It never means 8 degrees less than the temp when water freezes. 



  • @SuperousOxide said:

    unless you live in some of those northern states you don't see it much.

    Ah. The joys of living in the state of Canada.



  • @Monkios said:

    @SuperousOxide said:

    unless you live in some of those northern states you don't see it much.

    Ah. The joys of living in the state of Canada.



    I thought Canada had switched to Celcius with the rest of the world. It may be zero degrees F up there, but you don't see it because your thermometers say -18 C.



  • @SuperousOxide said:

    @Monkios said:
    @SuperousOxide said:
    unless you live in some of those northern states you don't see it much.
    Ah. The joys of living in the state of Canada.
    I thought Canada had switched to Celcius with the rest of the world. It may be zero degrees F up there, but you don't see it because your thermometers say -18 C.
    While we have officially adopted the metric system, since the majority of Canada's population is very close to the US border, we tend to use both systems simultaneously. Nearly every thermometer has both scale on it. Our cars list velocity in both miles/hour and km/hour. We use pounds instead of kilograms for human weight. Feet and inches for height. I favour the metric system, personally, but many use the US system most of the time. We're simply too close with the US to stop using their system entirely.



  • @KenW said:

    @Crispy Duck said:

    I always used to get confused by American films when they'd say something like "the temperature is eight below".  I thought, why don't they just say "minus eight" like we do?  I eventually realised that they meant 24 degrees Fahrenheit, ie 8 below freezing, but were too lazy to say "24 degrees fahrenheit".  Then I thought, if they want a temperature system which is easily related to the freezing point of water, why don't they use Celsius?   I still haven't found the answer to that one.

    No, Americans say 8 below to indicate 8 below zero Fahrenheit. It never means 8 degrees less than the temp when water freezes. 

     Well, I've learnt something today.  Cheers.  That's damn cold, it's good living here next to the Gulf Stream...



  • @Welbog said:

    @SuperousOxide said:
    @Monkios said:
    @SuperousOxide said:
    unless you live in some of those northern states you don't see it much.
    Ah. The joys of living in the state of Canada.
    I thought Canada had switched to Celcius with the rest of the world. It may be zero degrees F up there, but you don't see it because your thermometers say -18 C.
    While we have officially adopted the metric system, since the majority of Canada's population is very close to the US border, we tend to use both systems simultaneously. Nearly every thermometer has both scale on it. Our cars list velocity in both miles/hour and km/hour. We use pounds instead of kilograms for human weight. Feet and inches for height. I favour the metric system, personally, but many use the US system most of the time. We're simply too close with the US to stop using their system entirely.

    It's funny because it's mainly height and weight for which we don't use the metric system... personal barometers.  maybe it's because we're constantly comparing ourselves to americans ;)



  • @misguided said:

    ...maybe it's because we're constantly comparing ourselves to americans ;)

     ( Isn't the only difference between Americans and Canadians that Canadians have a little red leaf tattooed on them somewhere? Just like all the stores, flags, and every other object I've ever seen from Canada? )
     



  • we say eh a lot too, ya hoser



  • @misguided said:

    we say eh a lot too, ya hoser

    Strange...



  • @superjer said:

    @misguided said:

    ...maybe it's because we're constantly comparing ourselves to americans ;)

     ( Isn't the only difference between Americans and Canadians that Canadians have a little red leaf tattooed on them somewhere? Just like all the stores, flags, and every other object I've ever seen from Canada? )
     

    Also Canadians don't get into fights over which politician is better.  We care, and fight, more about what beer is better. 



  • @Jetts said:

    @superjer said:

    @misguided said:

    ...maybe it's because we're constantly comparing ourselves to americans ;)

     ( Isn't the only difference between Americans and Canadians that Canadians have a little red leaf tattooed on them somewhere? Just like all the stores, flags, and every other object I've ever seen from Canada? )
     

    Also Canadians don't get into fights over which politician is better.  We care, and fight, more about what beer is better. 

    Uh...

    I am going to start a political fight with you at band practice tonight.  And then I will smash a beer over your head.  We'll see who fights about what THEN 



  • @misguided said:

    we say eh a lot too, ya hoser

    I've never heard the eh, but seriously, stop saying aboot! 



  • @Kemp said:

    @Vechni said:
    the lottery - 18+ and up, no HS diploma required.

     they should make a lottery ticket in Camelot where you have to multiply fractions in response to this. 

    Or simply adding fractions (multiplication is too easy to get right by accident). Can you imagine the outrage? "Who do they think they are telling me that 1/4 plus 1/2 isn't 1/6. Do they think I'm retarded or something?"

     

    Dude.... everyone knows that 1/4 plus 1/2 equals 2/6.  duh! 



  • @Welbog said:

    @SuperousOxide said:
    @Monkios said:
    @SuperousOxide said:
    unless you live in some of those northern states you don't see it much.
    Ah. The joys of living in the state of Canada.
    I thought Canada had switched to Celcius with the rest of the world. It may be zero degrees F up there, but you don't see it because your thermometers say -18 C.
    While we have officially adopted the metric system, since the majority of Canada's population is very close to the US border, we tend to use both systems simultaneously. Nearly every thermometer has both scale on it. Our cars list velocity in both miles/hour and km/hour. We use pounds instead of kilograms for human weight. Feet and inches for height. I favour the metric system, personally, but many use the US system most of the time. We're simply too close with the US to stop using their system entirely.

    The US does use metric for a few things.  Wine and spirits are almost exclusively sold in metric units.  Soda and bottled water often are (500ml, 1 & 2 liter).  The speedometers and thermometers have both (digital thermos may have an either/or setting).  I have seen rare highway signage showing distance in kilometers.  Most grocery goods, in addition to the old units, have the metric sizes (weight, volume, whatever) on them, though they're not happy even numbers. 



  • @misguided said:

    @Jetts said:
    @superjer said:

    @misguided said:

    ...maybe it's because we're constantly comparing ourselves to americans ;)

     ( Isn't the only difference between Americans and Canadians that Canadians have a little red leaf tattooed on them somewhere? Just like all the stores, flags, and every other object I've ever seen from Canada? )
     

    Also Canadians don't get into fights over which politician is better.  We care, and fight, more about what beer is better. 

    Uh...

    I am going to start a political fight with you at band practice tonight.  And then I will smash a beer over your head.  We'll see who fights about what THEN 

    Every week you threaten to hurt me at practice.  I think you are a rage-oholic.  My alternate solution is that we both agree all politicians are crooks and then drink the beer while trying to forget all about politics.



  • @Sir Twist said:

    No, 8 below would be 8 below 0, as in -8. 24 degrees would be 24 degrees. Anywhere north of say, Maryland, it would not be unusual to have at least a week of sub-zero weather around January or February. It's only November and already I have ice on my car when I get out of work at 6 pm, if it rained at all during the day.

    ONLY november? I've been scraping ice off my car practically every morning before work since mid September-ish! Another few weeks and the temperature won't get ABOVE 0º F until March or so. Course, I live in Alaska... :)



  • @Jetts said:

    @misguided said:
    @Jetts said:
    @superjer said:

    @misguided said:

    ...maybe it's because we're constantly comparing ourselves to americans ;)

     ( Isn't the only difference between Americans and Canadians that Canadians have a little red leaf tattooed on them somewhere? Just like all the stores, flags, and every other object I've ever seen from Canada? )
     

    Also Canadians don't get into fights over which politician is better.  We care, and fight, more about what beer is better. 

    Uh...

    I am going to start a political fight with you at band practice tonight.  And then I will smash a beer over your head.  We'll see who fights about what THEN 

    Every week you threaten to hurt me at practice.  I think you are a rage-oholic.  My alternate solution is that we both agree all politicians are crooks and then drink the beer while trying to forget all about politics.

    dude, forgetting about politics would require us entirely not working on one of our songs. 

    for everyone who's not us, apparently another way to recognize canadians is that we talk to each other on public forums when one of us is behind a corporate firewall that won't let him run messenger. heh 



  • @SuperousOxide said:

    @Crispy Duck said:

    I always used to get confused by American films when they'd say something like "the temperature is eight below". I thought, why don't they just say "minus eight" like we do? I eventually realised that they meant 24 degrees Fahrenheit, ie 8 below freezing, but were too lazy to say "24 degrees fahrenheit". Then I thought, if they want a temperature system which is easily related to the freezing point of water, why don't they use Celsius? I still haven't found the answer to that one.



    I don't remember any cases of temperature being described that way, but it may happen. I've always figured the big appeal of fahrenheit is it limits the number of times we have to talk about negative temperatures. 0 degrees Fahrenheit is REALLY cold (0 Celsius isn't really that cold at all), unless you live in some of those northern states you don't see it much.

     

    It was discussed in another thread here, the basic explanation was that 0-100 in Fahrenheit is a range that you can reasonably expect to experience.



  • @death said:

    @dhromed said:

    ------------------------6

    thats 6 :P  -----------------------6 is -6

    LOL I like to say "the more the minus" rather than "the bigger the minus" for this. But yeah, it's six anyway.
     



  • @poochner said:

    @Welbog said:

    @SuperousOxide said:
    @Monkios said:
    @SuperousOxide said:
    unless you live in some of those northern states you don't see it much.
    Ah. The joys of living in the state of Canada.
    I thought Canada had switched to Celcius with the rest of the world. It may be zero degrees F up there, but you don't see it because your thermometers say -18 C.
    While we have officially adopted the metric system, since the majority of Canada's population is very close to the US border, we tend to use both systems simultaneously. Nearly every thermometer has both scale on it. Our cars list velocity in both miles/hour and km/hour. We use pounds instead of kilograms for human weight. Feet and inches for height. I favour the metric system, personally, but many use the US system most of the time. We're simply too close with the US to stop using their system entirely.

    The US does use metric for a few things.  Wine and spirits are almost exclusively sold in metric units.  Soda and bottled water often are (500ml, 1 & 2 liter).  The speedometers and thermometers have both (digital thermos may have an either/or setting).  I have seen rare highway signage showing distance in kilometers.  Most grocery goods, in addition to the old units, have the metric sizes (weight, volume, whatever) on them, though they're not happy even numbers. 

    The confusion over units is causing more trouble than you think:



  • @Welbog said:

    @SuperousOxide said:
    @Monkios said:
    @SuperousOxide said:
    unless you live in some of those northern states you don't see it much.
    Ah. The joys of living in the state of Canada.
    I thought Canada had switched to Celcius with the rest of the world. It may be zero degrees F up there, but you don't see it because your thermometers say -18 C.
    While we have officially adopted the metric system, since the majority of Canada's population is very close to the US border, we tend to use both systems simultaneously. Nearly every thermometer has both scale on it. Our cars list velocity in both miles/hour and km/hour. We use pounds instead of kilograms for human weight. Feet and inches for height. I favour the metric system, personally, but many use the US system most of the time. We're simply too close with the US to stop using their system entirely.

    Funny here in Oz, we use the metric system, but i know i use feet for hieght, and pounds when refering to fishing line.

    But i suggest we all use kelvin when discussing temperature, that way all temperatures are positive. (I am at a loss as to why no one has suggested this before.)



  • @Kain0_0 said:

    But i suggest we all use kelvin when discussing temperature, that way all temperatures are positive. (I am at a loss as to why no one has suggested this before.)

     

    I did, see above... 



  • Is it really that hard to work with negative numbers?



  • @Crispy Duck said:

    I always used to get confused by American films when they'd say something like "the temperature is eight below". I thought, why don't they just say "minus eight" like we do? I eventually realised that they meant 24 degrees Fahrenheit, ie 8 below freezing

    You realised wrong. This expression is universally used in the US to mean N below zero (i.e. under 0 °F). I’m wondering how you got the impression it meant 24 °F.



  • @Crispy Duck said:

    I always used to get confused by American films when they'd say something like "the temperature is eight below".  I thought, why don't they just say "minus eight" like we do?  I eventually realised that they meant 24 degrees Fahrenheit, ie 8 below freezing, but were too lazy to say "24 degrees fahrenheit".  Then I thought, if they want a temperature system which is easily related to the freezing point of water, why don't they use Celsius?   I still haven't found the answer to that one.

    Personally, I think that the US using the non-metric system is a WTF 



  • @valerion said:

    @Kain0_0 said:
    But i suggest we all use kelvin when discussing temperature, that way all temperatures are positive. (I am at a loss as to why no one has suggested this before.)

     

    I did, see above... 

    If most of the people here are the the US, shouldn't we use Rankine for absolute temperature? Kelvin only makes sense to me because I convert it to C as I go.



  • @Jetts said:

    If most of the people here are the the US, shouldn't we use Rankine for absolute temperature? Kelvin only makes sense to me because I convert it to C as I go.

    IIRC, Rankine is like Kelvin (zero being absolute zero), but uses the fahrenheit scale.  Most people don't even know about it unless they're engineers or work with engineers.

    Couldn't you see people looking at a temperature of 450 Rankine, then looking at the snowflakes on the card, and raising the same kind of hell?



  • @superjer said:

     Isn't the only difference between Americans and Canadians that Canadians have a little red leaf tattooed on them somewhere? Just like all the stores, flags, and every other object I've ever seen from Canada? )
     

     I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a tattoo of a maple leaf somewhere on me....

    -- Seejay



  • @seejay said:

    @superjer said:

     Isn't the only difference between Americans and Canadians that Canadians have a little red leaf tattooed on them somewhere? Just like all the stores, flags, and every other object I've ever seen from Canada? )
     

     I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a tattoo of a maple leaf somewhere on me....

    -- Seejay

    This whole red maple leaf is totally false and I am insulted that people would make ignorant blanket statements like that.  I know for a fact that a friend of mine has a BLUE maple leaf instead of the standard red one like the rest of us.



  • @Jetts said:

    This whole red maple leaf is totally false and I am insulted that people would make ignorant blanket statements like that.  I know for a fact that a friend of mine has a BLUE maple leaf instead of the standard red one like the rest of us.

    I like the idea of a blue one!  Mine's boring and red (but surrounded by a white heart).

    I need to get mine covered up though.  It looks like crap.  The lines are too thick and some are sloppy.  I'm definitely going to keep the maple leaf concept, but I need to figure something else around it to clean it up and change it.

    I knew someone with "Made in Canada" with a maple leaf tattoo on the back of his neck.  :)

    Yay Canucks!

    -- Seejay


Log in to reply