I read of a NASA report released in the ‘50s stating that the temperature range a human could survive indefinitely is roughly 4-35°C (40-95°F)*. This swam around in my brain for a few days as I imagined a temperature system that used these two values as its 0 and 100.

Celsius is used the world over, and while it is great for science, it is often argued that Fahrenheit is a more “human” system suitable for normal human needs. This system would be even more human-centric than Fahrenheit, as any temperature below 0 or above 100 would be considered “dangerous” to human health.

Eventually, I decided to make it myself. I looked up information on how to convert between temperature systems and derived a set of equations to convert from both Celsius and Fahrenheit and back. Allowing myself a little vanity, I dubbed the system “Peterson.” The system increases by roughly 3.2 degrees for every 1 degree Celsius, and 1.8 degrees for every 1 degree Fahrenheit.

°P = (°C × (100 / 31)) - (4 × (100 / 31))

°P = (°F × (100 / 55.8)) - (39.2 × (100 / 55.8))

°C = (°P + (4 × (100 / 31))) / (100 / 31)

°F = (°P + (39.2 × (100 / 55.8))) / (100 / 55.8)

These equations can be simplified** to:

°P ≈ (°C × 3.2) - 12.4

°P ≈ (°F × 1.8) - 70.8

°C ≈ (°P + 12.4) / 3.2

°F ≈ (°P + 70.8) / 1.8

Some fun temperatures: Water freezes at -12.9°P, boils at 309.7°P, and is at its densist at 0°P. Absolute Zero is -893.5°P. Human Body Temperature is 106.5°P. The lowest recorded temperature on Earth was -300.6°P and the highest was 170°P. Peterson syncs up with Celsius at 6° and Fahrenheit at 90°.

This system also has an Absolute Zero sibling system (such as Kelvin for Celsius and and Rankine for Fahrenheit) known as Mikkelbur, where the 0 is AZ and a temperature difference of one degree Mikkelbur (°M) is defined as one degree Peterson.

*This is factored using the wet bulb temperature, so the actual air temperature has a much wider range

**While correction values of 12.9 for Celsius and 70.3 for Fahrenheit are derived directly from their respective equations, the correction values used in these formulas center the scale around 50°P and thus make the estimations more accurate (within 1/2°P) for temperatures between 0-100°P.

Note: if you would like use this system in a piece of media, all I ask is that you reference back to this page and let me know so that I can check it out.