# How cold is too cold? [closed]

On a day during a severe winter, somewhere in cold countries, I watched a weather report on a television.

The report showed that on that particular day the temperature was 0° ....but due to some technical glitch, the scale(Which is generally used to represent temperatures) was not displayed.

After continuing for few more details on the local climate, the news reader read the forecast that the next day the temperature is going to be half of that very particular day. Then I was in a dilemma- the next day going to be warmer or colder or remains the same ...

## closed as unclear what you're asking by dcfyj, Peregrine Rook, Rand al'Thor, Chowzen, AnkoganitJun 16 '18 at 14:45

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• Good thing there's no "physics" tag here, as we take umbrage at "new temperature equals X times old temperature" regardless of scale. – Carl Witthoft Jun 15 '18 at 18:55
• I'd generally say about -30, but if there's a really strong wind, even -20 could be too cold. #answerthetitlequestion – Ian MacDonald Jun 15 '18 at 20:47
• @Ian Wow, where do you live? If $-20$ only could be too cold. – Rand al'Thor Jun 16 '18 at 9:37

Regardless of which temperature scale is displayed, tomorrow will be the same temperature.

If you assume 0°F, that's -17.777...°C.
Half of that is -8.888...°C, which is 16°F.

If you assume 0°C, that's 32°F.
Half of that is 16°F, which is -8.888...°C.

Ultimately, it would depend on which scale you start in to determine the relative temperature, but there's probably more to the riddle.

I think that it will be

warmer

Reason

There is three units generaly used for temperature : Fahrenheit, Celcius and Kelvin. 0°K can only be observed in a controled environment on earth and shouldn't appear on a weather report. 0°F and 0°C are more normal temperatures for a cold country and both can be true.

If the news reader saw that the next day, te temperature wa still 0°, he would had said that it was the same temperature, not half of it.

We can then say that the temperature that you saw (0°) and the one that the news reader talk aren't the same since half of 0° is still 0° and we excluded this possibility. I assume they are in different scale (F for one and C for the other). It's either 0°C(32°F) and will be colder or 0°F(-17.7°C) and will be warmer. The scale used by the news reader will be the one most used in your country so we need to find where you are.

Three countries are still using the imperial system (USA, Liberia and Myanmar) and two of then cannot be considered a cold country. You could be in the USA but they only use one scale (F).
The majority of the other countries also only use one scale (C) but there is at least one that is still using both because their neighbour is still on the imperial system.

I believe that you are in Canada, the news reader used Celcius scale (like the majority of canadians) and you saw the displayed temperatures -17.7°C (0°F). Tomorow, the temperature will be -8.8°C (16.16°F) and it will be warmer.

• Rot13: "0°X pna bayl or bofreirq va n pbagebyrq raivebazrag ba rnegu", npghnyyl vg pna'g or bofreirq ng nyy, znxvat vg rira yrff yvxryl gb cbc hc ba gur jrngure! – Lord Farquaad Jun 15 '18 at 18:09
• Rot13: V guvax nabgure ernfba gb thrff gung gur bevtvany fpnyr ersref gb °S naq abg °P vf gung 0 prypvhf vf abg "n frirer jvagre"'f jrngure. – Liora Haydont Jun 15 '18 at 20:58
• Rot13 : V pbhyq netr gung rira 0°S vfa'g n uneq jvagre, whfg n abezny bar va Pnanqn. Znlor BC vf va gur HX vafgrnq, gung pbhyq or pbafvqrerq frirer jvagre gurer naq gurl fgvyy hfr °S sbe byq crbcyr – Joey Dionne Jun 15 '18 at 22:09
• Rot13: Bar pbhyq nethr gung 0° P pbhyq or pbafvqrerq "frirer jrngure" va gur Fnunen, be rira va Cubravk, NM. – Chowzen Jun 16 '18 at 12:05

Unless i missed something

the temperature should be the same
since 0/2 is still 0 whatever the scale

• Well tried. But please check the associated tags to this. – Mea Culpa Nay Jun 15 '18 at 16:43

Using Occam’s razor, the next day is going to be

warmer

This follows from the fact that it was a severe winter in a cold country, and every commonly used scale used would have been well in the negative.

On the other hand, this assumption would require that there was a glitch in the software that displayed the ”0 degrees” forecast.

This extra requirement is confirmed as being true in the text.

The news reader then has read the correct report (minus something degrees on some scale) aloud, but this part is not mentioned in the question.

Then it would make sense to say that the next day’s temperature is going to be half that.

This seems to be the only solution that doesn’t require that new irregularities (like a joke cracking news reader saying that zero is half of zero, or comparing different units to one another) are introduced in the answer.

There may, of course, be some hidden clues in the text that would result in a completely different kind of answer (maybe even with some calculations or riddle-solving), but if so, I can’t find them.

If the temperature on that particular day is 0° and the forcast says that the next day temperature would be half of present day temperature then the next day temperature would also be same i.e 0°. So the next day temperature would remain the same.

Hope this would help you. Well another possibility may be that the noted temperature on the scale may be in different scale(i.e if the temperature is in Celsius or in Farenhite) then the situation changes. So unless the unit is specified one can't guess it correct. Hope this help :-)

• Welcome to Puzzling.SE! I've added a spoiler tag to your answer: they're customary here, to avoid spoiling the solution for anyone who wants to have a go at the puzzle themselves. Feel free to take the tour and visit the help center to learn more about the site. – F1Krazy Jun 15 '18 at 16:40
• Good attempt. But please check- riddle and calculation tags are applicable to this. – Mea Culpa Nay Jun 15 '18 at 16:41

Edited

Maybe, the temperature is 0 degrees celsius, but is later converted to 32 degree Fahrenheit. Half of 32 degree Fahrenheit would be 16 degree Fahrenheit, which is converted back to around -8.9 degree Celsius. -8.9 degree Celsius is 8.9 degrees Celsius colder than 0 degrees Celsius, so stay at home instead :P

• In the correct track. So was it more colder or warmer the next day ? – Mea Culpa Nay Jun 15 '18 at 16:50