• quarrk [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        12 hours ago

        180 million Fahrenheit converts to almost exactly 100 million Kelvin, so I imagine the journalist just converted from Kelvin to get that number. Anyway, using 2000 F ≈ 1,366.48 K gives about 73,000 bonfires.

        Temperature does kinda work like this. The Boltzmann constant k_B has units of Joules per Kelvin (energy / temperature). An energy E can has an equivalent temperature T given by setting E = k_B*T. I think it’s good enough to state that 73,000 bonfires would be collectively 73,000 times hotter than one bonfire.

          • quarrk [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            7 hours ago

            About 2 campfires for a bonfire I guess. A normal campfire isn’t going to be 2,000 F, more like 800 F but let’s call it 1,000 F. I thought bonfire was more accurate above because the fire would have to be roaring to reach that temp.