Sunday 17 September 2023

The Average Temperature Problem

 Lets say you have a 6-room house.  You go and mount a temperature measurement device in each corner, plus the hallway of the home....amounting to 28 temperature readings.

All the room have one window....some have large windows....some two windows.  Some rooms face the north, some the west and some the south.  Some have trees affecting things.  Some heat ducts by the windows....some have heat ducts on the opposite side of the room. 

So over a 20-year period, can you say with any scientific authority....there's an average for the house....with a value that you'd put trust in?  

After a long pause.....you'd likely state that weather affected yearly temperatures...having windows open affected temperatures....having the temperature changing....there is NO average of value.

I see the same problem with people trying to say the Earth has an average  temperature, and you can reach some scientific level of 'trust'.  

1 comment:

LargeMarge said...

Apparently, for a few billion years, the old average temperature was -270°C (below the freezing temperature of water at sea-level).
This somewhat muddles the new average-average, which, in my opinion, is merely another want-to-be late-arriver hoping to skate in unnoticed on the hopes-n-dreams of the Politic Correctness crowd.
.
I say 'apparently', because any information is second-hand and inherently suspect.
And it is from scientists, relying on grants, so there is that...