[Ads-l] Phrase: more than (less than) three hundred degrees below zero

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

A recent email from "The New Yorker" touts an article titled "The
Renewable-Energy Revolution Will Need Renewable Storage". The email
refers to an energy storage system that liquefies air "by cooling it
to more than three hundred degrees below zero". The article itself
uses a similar phrase: "cooling air to more than three hundred degrees
below zero".

This sounds odd to me; another phrase would have been more natural:
"cooling air to less than three hundred degrees below zero". I guess
the writers of the email and the article are ignoring the sign and
simply referring to the magnitude of the number. Is this common?

Apparently, the article is using Fahrenheit degrees since the boiling
point of liquid air is −317.83  degrees F (−194.35 degrees C)
according to Wikipedia.

Here is an excerpt from the email:

[Begin excerpt]
"If you use clean energy to do the initial work and find a green way
to store and release it, you've created an ecologically responsible
battery alternative." But finding a practical, inexpensive, and
efficient way to do it is the trick. One company is pumping water
underground to form reservoirs that it can release to generate power.
Another is liquefying air by cooling it to more than three hundred
degrees below zero, and then warming it up to spin turbines.
[End excerpt]

Date: April 18, 2022 (website) and April 25, 2022 (magazine issue)
Title: The Renewable-Energy Revolution Will Need Renewable Storage
Author: Matthew Hutson

[Begin excerpt]
A British company, Highview Power, is taking a more extreme tack,
cooling air to more than three hundred degrees below zero, at which
point it becomes a liquid.
[End excerpt]

Garson

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