Editing Talk:2877: Fever

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I think 37 Celsius is a round number for MAXIMUM normal core temperature - you're probably lower just now - and 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit is a precise conversion of an imprecise figure.  It's worth knowing your personal normal temperature - across the menstrual cycle, if that applies to you - to be able to say that you have a fever significantly above your personal norm.  Your norm probably is lower than 37 / 98.6.  Also, these days, you're likely to aim an electronic thermometer onto or into a body part which is naturally cooler, and only estimate the temperature of your insides.  However, this is not what Planned Parenthood recommends, and that's between you and them. Robert Carnegie [email protected] [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.28|172.70.90.28]] 12:54, 6 January 2024 (UTC)
 
I think 37 Celsius is a round number for MAXIMUM normal core temperature - you're probably lower just now - and 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit is a precise conversion of an imprecise figure.  It's worth knowing your personal normal temperature - across the menstrual cycle, if that applies to you - to be able to say that you have a fever significantly above your personal norm.  Your norm probably is lower than 37 / 98.6.  Also, these days, you're likely to aim an electronic thermometer onto or into a body part which is naturally cooler, and only estimate the temperature of your insides.  However, this is not what Planned Parenthood recommends, and that's between you and them. Robert Carnegie [email protected] [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.28|172.70.90.28]] 12:54, 6 January 2024 (UTC)
:Per wikipedia, a study in the 19th century pegged the mean (without mentioning the variance) at 36.88 C / 98.38 F, which are equally precise.  That got commonly reported as 37 C / 98.4 F, which loses more precision on the Celsius value than on the Fahrenheit value, but those are both reasonable ways to round the values in and of themselves.  Then apparently someone noticed that precisely 37 C converts to precisely 98.6 F, and started reporting 37 C / 98.6 F.  So, yes, the Fahrenheit value is overly precise.  (But the typical range now is reported as 36.5–37.5 C / 97.7–99.5 F, and given that body temperature is generally higher when we're awake, it seems likely that "you're probably *higher* just now." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_body_temperature#Historical_understanding [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.30|162.158.154.30]] 22:33, 8 January 2024 (UTC)
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:Per wikipedia, a study in the 19th century pegged the mean (without mentioning the variance) at 36.88 C / 98.38 F, which are equally precise.  That got commonly reported as 37 C / 98.4 F, which loses more precision on the Celsius value than on the Fahrenheit value, but those are both reasonable ways to round the values in and of themselves.  Then apparently someone noticed that precisely 37 C converts to precisely 98.6 F, and started reporting 37 C / 98.6 F.  So, yes, the Fahrenheit value is overly precise.  (But the typical range now is reported as 36.5–37.5 C / 97.7–99.5 F, and given that body temperature is generally higher when we're awake, it seems likely that "you're probably *higher* just now."[[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.30|162.158.154.30]] 22:33, 8 January 2024 (UTC)

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