Dresden

I was in Dresden, Germany, this past week. One evening we went on a walking tour of historical Dresden. For those who don't know, Dresden was subject to some heavy bombing towards the end of the war. I'd been vaguely aware of this historical fact (the phrase "firebombing of Dresden" was familiar before going there), but I was unaware of (or had forgotten) the details.

One of the details that was mentioned was that parts of Dresden reached 1500 degrees Celsius or so during the resulting firestorm. Being more familiar with the Fahrenheit system, I started to do the conversion, 9/5 C + 32. As soon as that formula popped into my head, I started laughing to myself about the absurdity of adding 32. At 2700 degrees Fahrenheit, that extra 32 degrees just won't make a big difference.