Cricket temperature calculator!

How do you know the temperature normally?

Pick up your phone or ask Alex/Siri/ Google in that order!

If you are a nature enthusiast then you can simply listen and use the Dolbear’s Law!

All you need is a relatively quiet place and crickets! Not the sports but the insect! You also need good hearing and patience!

The law itself is a formula that approximates the air temperature based on the rate of a cricket’s chirps!

The law works because crickets are cold-blooded animals, meaning their metabolic rate and muscle contractions—which produce chirps—are directly influenced by the external temperature!

So as the temperature increases, a cricket’s chirping speeds up; as it drops, the chirping slows!

Can we use the same logic for and find the temp with rate of teeth chattering!?

Cold causes teeth to chatter because the body’s muscles, including those in the jaw, involuntarily contract and relax to generate heat, a process called shivering. This involuntary shaking is the body’s natural response to a drop in core temperature to prevent hypothermia! But that works only in the cold and the rate is different for everyone so stick to the phone!

Anyway the Dolbear’s law was first published the observation in 1897, although similar findings were reported earlier. 

The formulas can vary slightly depending on the species of cricket and the desired temperature scale.

For Fahrenheit the most commonly cited version is a simple formula based on chirps per 15 seconds: 

Count the number of cricket chirps in 15 seconds  and then you simply add 40 to that number!

For Celsius the formula is based on counting chirps in 25 seconds dividing by 3, and adding 4! Now let that not complicate your mind!

For instance, 48 chirps in 25 seconds would approximate (48/3+4=20 degree C). 

The accuracy varies from species to species in that for the snowy tree cricket (Oecanthus fultoni), sometimes called the “thermometer cricket”; the count and measurement is really accurate!

However, the chirping of common field crickets is less reliable!
Unfortunately here also you have a class divide! Common folks are not elite!

Similar conditions and similar laws apply to different insects! Different insect species have different formulas.

The formulas are also not accurate at extreme temperatures where crickets stop chirping or cannot survive. Other variables, such as the cricket’s health, age, or the presence of other crickets, can also affect the chirping rate!

So when it comes to theory, Dolbear’s law  is good but for all practical purposes just look at you smart watch or phone!


There’s a joke somewhere there! Of course if it’s satire then it could be Srinivasa Iyer “Cho” Ramaswamy!

Now stop listening to crickets and sleep!

Shubh ratri…