• phoneymouse@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      That’s obvious, but the sentence implies that we are talking about the experience of living in those temperatures in those places, you know, as a human and not just a computer comparing two numbers that are larger or smaller.

        • papertowels
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          7 months ago

          The point they’re making is that folks aren’t typically experiencing 108 as a significant part of their lives, because they’re oftentimes shuttling around from air conditioned refuge to air conditioned refuge. There is minimum discomfort because if you don’t have AC you legitimately might die.

          However the portrayed lifestyle of NY folks involved much more engagement with the outdoors, resulting in lower instaneous discomfort, but added up over time.

          So the claim being made isn’t that the number 81 indicates a hotter environmental temperature than 108, it’s that the experience of those at 81 add up to be just as, if not more uncomfortable.