Am I behind the times?

[Jeepnik]

What with the cold snap some folks are having, temperatures have become common lately. But for the life of me I can't figure out why people are using * to indicate degree instead of ° as has been proper for centuries. Can anyone shed any light on this phenomenon?

 

[nrobe50]

I have no idea what you are trying to say.

 

[Watertender]

Maybe because they don't have the ° sign in their device and * is as close as they can get. Or they don't know any better...

 

[CaptHowdy]

I have no idea how to make the degree symbol on my phone

 

[jimbo1096]

What Watertender said

 

[Cofaler]

I don't have a clue where the degree symbol is on my keyboard, much less my phone. I usually just peck out the word 'degrees' to avoid controversy and ridicule.

 

[peachhead]

°°° wow I didn't even know I could do that.
Remarkable.®

I will go ahead and apologize in advance for this most recent clutter.

 

[Watertender]

My phone is a Samsung Android AO3 and the degree symbol is on the 2nd page of symbols on the far left side just above the shift key. It's the 3rd line from either the top or bottom. °°°°°¿¿¿¿ if you read upside down!!

 

[GasGuzzler]

Rhetorical question as it is very obviously because most people don't care about keyboard widgets enough to google how to do it.

 

[blume357]

Cofaler's method is the same as mine.... I'm not going to try and find that little 'zero'... I guess I could just type a small case 'o' and then reduce the font size and then justify it high... but that's just about as complicated as the above description of how to find the thing on an android.

 

[Mobuck]

I'm not going to waste time looking for that symbol and would likely forget where I found it by the next time I wanted to use it.

 

[Dan in MI]

Maybe because they don't have the ° sign in their device and * is as close as they can get. Or they don't know any better...

Just looked and didn't find it anywhere on my phone. Which is why I use the asterisk. Often followed by F, sometimes C depending on the audience.

 

[RGRacing]

(alt 248) Degree Symbol (°) - Now that was easy - Need a Keyboard with a Alt Key.

 

[Cholo]

Typing * for degrees has been proper on internet chat boards for centuries, meaning at least 800 years.

LOL

 

[Fox Mike]

You can also type "degree(s)", that works.

 

[Kevin]

On iPhone go to the numbers and press and hold the zero button. Then the ° will be an option.

It's °relatively easy° but I don't know about android phones. As mentioned above, the ° could be buried in the second or third page of a sub menu.

But if I say it's 33* or 33°, is one more understandable than the other?

 

[codebreaker]

Option Shift 8 on a Macbook Pro.
Whew. Ready for the next crisis.
I was able to find it because I have a college °.

 

[Yaworski]

°°° Interesting, it Alt-248 works with the keypad but not the regular number keys.
I just use Charmap to find it. º

For the record, I only do forum stuff on a desktop computer with a real keyboard.

 

[el caminero]

I have no idea how to make the degree symbol on my phone

Similarly, my latestphone has the "cent" icon, but this tablet does not, yet both have the°

 

[rugerguy]

years ago Al Gore told us to simply spell it out.........