Perform Instant Temperature Conversions! (Temperature Conversion in Japan)
If youre planning to travel in Japan or spend time there teaching English, youll definitely need to know something about temperature conversion or you might wind up freezing or baking!
Japanese Climate
The islands that make up Japan stretch roughly from the same latitude as Puget Sound and Vancouver Island all the way to Southern California and the Baja Peninsula. The climates are similar, but you need to know the proper conversion temperature in order to select appropriate clothing. For example, the warmest temperature ever recorded in southern Japan was 41 degrees but if you had worn a sweater that day, youd have risked heat stroke! Likewise, the temperature in on the northern island of Hokkaido is frequently below zero but that is not necessarily as cold as you may think.
Its the Metric Way
You might have known that Japan (like every other country in the world except Myanmar, Liberia and the USA) uses the metric system. The Celsius, or centigrade system is the temperature conversion method under this system.
When you look at a temperature conversion chart, youll see that the Celsius system is based on the behavior of water. Zero on the centigrade scale is the freezing point of water, and the boiling point is given on a temperature conversion table as 100 degrees. Therefore, temperatures seem much cooler than they really are to someone who is still used to the old Fahrenheit scale, on which water freezes at 32 degrees and boils at 210 degrees at sea level. Temperature conversion charts will show that 1 degree Celsius is equal to 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit. Therefore, one method of temperature conversion is to multiply the Celsius reading by 1.8, or if you dont care about an exact reading, by 2.
Using this method of
temperature conversion, multiply 41 times 2 and add that to 32 (the equivalent of 0 degrees Celsius), and you can see that the hottest temperature every recorded in Japan was well over 100 degrees comparable to some of the interior deserts of California, Nevada and Arizona.
Being Prepared
Because Japan is considered to be in a temperate zone, youll want to be prepared for a wide range of weather conditions, regardless of the time of year. If youre not a math person and arent comfortable trying to do temperature conversion in your head, you may wish to invest in a temperature conversion calculator that has this function, and usually can be used for other metric conversions as well.
About the Author: Wayne Hemrick is active in helping English language teachers with an interest in Japan. In this article he talks about temperature conversion.
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