# Standard Deviation - fahrenheit to celsius

• Sep 21st 2007, 10:01 PM
googy
Standard Deviation - fahrenheit to celsius
Hi, I have a quick question...

I have a question, if the mean tempature was -19.3 C and the standard deviation was 2.3 C..... when converting to Fahrenheit mean is easy i get -2.74F but I can't figure out the standard deviation conversion.... any help?
• Sep 22nd 2007, 01:21 AM
CaptainBlack
Quote:

Originally Posted by googy
Hi, I have a quick question...

I have a question, if the mean tempature was -19.3 C and the standard deviation was 2.3 C..... when converting to Fahrenheit mean is easy i get -2.74F but I can't figure out the standard deviation conversion.... any help?

Convert it just as if it were a temprature.

RonL
• Sep 22nd 2007, 01:37 AM
googy
Thanks for the reply.... That was the first thing I tried and I got 36.14F... that wasn't the right answer though... I read on another thing online that you cant convert standard deviation straight from celsious to farenheit... if anyone else has another suggestion i'd appreciate it.
• Sep 22nd 2007, 04:19 AM
topsquark
Quote:

Originally Posted by googy
Hi, I have a quick question...

I have a question, if the mean tempature was -19.3 C and the standard deviation was 2.3 C..... when converting to Fahrenheit mean is easy i get -2.74F but I can't figure out the standard deviation conversion.... any help?

We know that the standard deviation is $2.3^o ~C$. This represents a change in the temperature, so you are correct that you can't simply use the formula to change the temperature. However you can still use it in the following sense:

We know that a change in temperature of $100^o ~C$ corresponds to a change in temperature of $180^o~F$. So that's our conversion factor for a change in temperature:
$2.3^o~C \cdot \frac{180^o~F}{100^o~C} = 4.14^o~F$

-Dan
• Sep 22nd 2007, 04:32 PM
googy
Thanks a lot I appreciate the help.. I completely get it now.