(Poll) Metric or Imperial

[Plane Sailing]

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

This would be my preference too

 

[Derren]

On thing, if you use imperial you might want to use yard and quarts instead of foot and galleons. Those units are very close to meters and liter in metric and can roughly be converted on a 1:1 basis.

 

[TrippyHippy]

On thing, if you use imperial you might want to use yard and quarts instead of foot and galleons. Those units are very close to meters and liter in metric and can roughly be converted on a 1:1 basis.

...albeit potentially disastrous in the real world...

http://edition.cnn.com/TECH/space/9909/30/mars.metric.02/

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Medieval fantasy: Imperial. Or better yet, make up your own in-setting system.

Modern: Either.

Sci-Fi/Future: definitely metric.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

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.

Now that's not remotely true. In my aerospace engineering education, in order to be proficient in both systems we routinely did our calculations in both SI and English standard units; engineering companies I work with now use either depending on how old our products are -- despite a metric standard, I've dealt with some products so old that all of their technical documentation is in English units.

You have to be sure to convert the dimensioned constants to the correct units, of course: e.g. Earth g = 9.81 m/sec^2 or 32 ft/sec^2. The other key is to remember that the standard pound is not a unit of mass; it's a unit of force. The actual unit of mass is a slug; the pound is a slug-ft/sec^2, just like the SI unit of force, the Newton, is a kg-m/sec^2. If you don't use slugs where you would use kilograms, then your equations won't work.

Units of measure are independent of the physical relationships, since all units can be converted into all other units. There's an entire technique of analysis called dimensional analysis that relies on this relationship to enable calculations.

 

[Derren]

Or better yet, make up your own in-setting system.

Thats imo not a good idea. Unless that system is just using different names for existing measurements it will confuse the players more than it will add to immersion.
Sure it is interesting when the guard tells you that the nearest village is 26 giant throws away, but unless your players have memorized the conversion chart they will have no idea how far that is and either you have to add that information OOC which breaks immersion or they have to look it up stopping the flow of the game.

 

[TrippyHippy]

Now that's not remotely true. In my aerospace engineering education, in order to be proficient in both systems we routinely did our calculations in both SI and English standard units; engineering companies I work with now use either depending on how old our products are -- despite a metric standard, I've dealt with some products so old that all of their technical documentation is in English units.

You have to be sure to convert the dimensioned constants to the correct units, of course: e.g. Earth g = 9.81 m/sec^2 or 32 ft/sec^2. The other key is to remember that the standard pound is not a unit of mass; it's a unit of force. The actual unit of mass is a slug; the pound is a slug-ft/sec^2, just like the SI unit of force, the Newton, is a kg-m/sec^2. If you don't use slugs where you would use kilograms, then your equations won't work.

Units of measure are independent of the physical relationships, since all units can be converted into all other units. There's an entire technique of analysis called dimensional analysis that relies on this relationship to enable calculations.

Ahem, if you are a scientist you are required to use SI units and the equations are attuned to that.

A Newton (N) equates to kg, metres and seconds as you say - which conversely allows you to directly relate this to Newton's 2nd Law (F=ma). Putting in imperial equivalents might get you so far, but when other equations are then based upon these relationships (like, for example, the relationship between Voltage or Tesla and Force), you start to get problems. There is a whole web of interconnected physical equations that operate on standardised units. Moreover, the moment you deviate from SI measurements the more likely you are to make mistakes in interpretations. It also makes it increasingly difficult to use scientific notation for very large or small numbers respectively.

 

[Janx]

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)?

They don't.

The average american uses Imperial units for weight, volume and length/distance as pounds, cups, quarts, gallons, inches, feet, yards, miles.

They wouldn't know what a furlong was if it bit them and ran off with a long furry.

If your RPG is expressing scientific math for the speed of light calculations to go to warp, go use Metric. The one player is interested in doing all that math to play the game will be just fine.

 

[Nikosandros]

Ahem, if you are a scientist you are required to use SI units and the equations are attuned to that.

Have you ever heard of the CGS system? Or of Atomic Units? Science can be done in a lot of different units. There are branches of engineering that routinely use PSI and BTU...

 

[TrippyHippy]

Have you ever heard of the CGS system? Or of Atomic Units? Science can be done in a lot of different units. There are branches of engineering that routinely use PSI and BTU...

Yes I have heard of them, and again the point is that scientists (as in they want to publish a scientific report) are required to use SI measurements.