(Poll) Metric or Imperial

[Scrivener of Doom]

What, you've never bought a 2-liter bottle of soda? Never read a food label that expressed nutrients in grams? I mean, you're preferentially exposed to imperial measurements, but most people have some experience with metric.

And, in a gaming context, I'd be far less put off by distances measured in meters than in "squares".

You're replying to the wrong person: I'm not American and I'm in favour of the metric system and I use it.

Also, it's "litre" and what is "soda"?

 

[Jan van Leyden]

I prefer the metric system as the logical one. Working with 5 or 10 feet increments is okay due to years of exposure, but please spare me furlongs, fathoms, acres and all the other weird stuff.

By the way, how do imperial-thinking scientist measure the wavelenght of light? Nano inches? Or do you have some bizarre measurement, like osc(illation)?

 

[Ahnehnois]

By the way, how do imperial-thinking scientist measure the wavelenght of light? Nano inches? Or do you have some bizarre measurement, like osc(illation)?

There aren't really any imperial thinking scientists. Even in the US, science (especially hard science that's divorced from everyday life like physics and engineering) generally uses metric.

 

[Derren]

Of course, I understand that living in the USA means you're not really exposed to the metric system.

Fun Fact: It was the USA who pushed other countries to adopt a unified system and officially also uses the metric system. Its just that the private sector never bothered to switch over because it would cost too much and there was no need for it as it would only confuse the customers.

By the way, how do imperial-thinking scientist measure the wavelenght of light? Nano inches? Or do you have some bizarre measurement, like osc(illation)?

There are not that much imperial thinking scientists. All science is done in metric. In the few cases where it isn't bad things happen (a NASA rocket crashed because some programmer used imperial measurement instead of metric).

PS: Isn't imperial different than whatever measurement system the USA uses? I thought they have their own variation of imperial.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Fun Fact: It was the USA who pushed other countries to adopt a unified system and officially also uses the metric system. Its just that the private sector never bothered to switch over because it would cost too much and there was no need for it as it would only confuse the customers. (snip)

What a shame that the no politics rule makes drilling down into the irony of that first sentence impossible!

Is the metric system actually the official system of measurements for the USA? I thought that Congress couldn't/wouldn't pass the necessary legislation because of public anger at such a change? Or was it something to do with the inability of getting the individual states to fall into line?

 

[Hand of Evil]

The metric system failed in the US because they pushed conversion tables on us, if they had just done it, we would live with it but they scared the general public by telling them they would have to do math!

In fantasy games I am a imperial kind of guy.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Imperial for fantasy or modern; metric for future or sci-fi.

I am an inches, foot, yards, etc. American, and I endorse this with one alteration: put "American" between "or" and "modern".

 

[Erekose]

For medieval fantasy, imperial.

For real life, metric.

I would agree with this. Personally as someone in his mid-forties I use a peculiar mish-mash off both. The UK school system, while I was growing up, moved over to metric but everything outside of school was Imperial. Clearly it's moved a long way on now. However, having lived through it distances are more intuitive as miles, height and weight are feet/inches and stones/pounds, but pretty much everything else is more intuitive as metric.

As for RPGs, my 1st fantasy game was OD&D so Imperial will always feel more right there and my 1st science fiction game was Traveller and that was metric.

 

[TrippyHippy]

The S.I. system means that all scientific studies are conducted in specified metric measurements. Speaking as a science teacher, it's a notable point that a number of physics equations don't work if they aren't conducted in metric.

In a gaming context, any sci-fi not using metric feels strange and clunky. In terms of modern or fantasy, it really doesn't matter as much to me either way.

 

[nerfherder]

Imperial for fantasy, whatever the culture used for historic/modern, metric for everything else.