Metric & Markets

[Plane Sailing]

BTW, in my campaign worlds I normally don't use miles or kilometers, but rather 'leagues'.

I've got no idea whether this is the official definition or not, but in my world a league is as far as a man can walk in an hour. This seems like a really useful measurement in pre-industrial times, as when something is '4 leagues away' you are basically telling someone how far it is in the sense of how long they might expect to take to get there.

Realistic? Who knows. Works for me though

 

[Fenes]

Shadowrun uses metric as well. In fact, I think the majority of SF RPGs use metric. In our D&D game, we talk about meters and kgs, not pounds and inches.

 

[Krensky]

BTW, in my campaign worlds I normally don't use miles or kilometers, but rather 'leagues'.

I've got no idea whether this is the official definition or not, but in my world a league is as far as a man can walk in an hour. This seems like a really useful measurement in pre-industrial times, as when something is '4 leagues away' you are basically telling someone how far it is in the sense of how long they might expect to take to get there.

Realistic? Who knows. Works for me though

That is the official definition, and it's generally accepted to be three miles.

 

[Nifft]

I like to think I qualify as "one of these scientists who uses both systems" (3rd year chemistry undergrad, living in the US). As far as Imperial (US) vs. metric/SI goes, I find metric/SI to be easier to use for volume (I use liters and [especially] milliliters many times every day, so I'm used to those) and Imperial (US) easier for distance (I rarely have to measure things in SI units, so my ability to judge distance in SI units is limited). For temperature, it depends on the context: in terms of weather, I am more comfortable with the Imperial (US) system (since it's what I've used my entire life), but for anything else (including boiling and melting points of water, oddly enough) I'm more comfortable with the Celsius scale. As far as mass goes, I'm about equally comfortable with both pounds and kilograms (even though, technically, pounds are weight and not mass). For converting between mass and volume, I find SI units easier than Imperial (US) units (I find 1L of water weighs 1kg easier than 1 gallon weighs ~8lbs, though that may be that I find 1L easier to visualize than 1gallon).

Hopefully that is something close to what you were looking for .

Yep, that's pretty much exactly what I was looking for.

My experience is that SI temperatures are "more intuitive" for daily life, because I tend to need to pack for places which use Celsius, and I find pints to be a very intuitive quantity of beer to drink, but otherwise, we match up pretty well.

I'm a physicist. Will that do?

It certainly would, but I'm interested in your experiences with each, and not at all in platitudes about how REAL SCIENTISTS can use anything. Obviously it's possible to shift between units, and equally obviously nobody uses kilocubits per microfortnight for anything but exam questions.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Kask]

It certainly would, but I'm interested in your experiences with each, and not at all in platitudes about how REAL SCIENTISTS can use anything. Obviously it's possible to shift between units, and equally obviously nobody uses kilocubits per microfortnight for anything but exam questions.

I checked with my dad who worked on the designs for the Apollo missions. He said the astronauts & NASA Ops used the English system. You should check to see what system other countries used when landing men on the moon.

 

[Nifft]

I checked with my dad who worked on the designs for the Apollo missions. He said the astronauts & NASA Ops used the English system. You should check to see what system other countries used when landing men on the moon.

Am I missing a clever allusion to microfortnights here, or is this a bit of a nonsequitur?

Cheers, -- N

 

[Beginning of the End]

D&D is system-agnostic. It measures in squares, which you can treat as 5 feet or 2 meters more or less interchangeably. But for games in general, I can't imagine that the advantage of having distances and areas described in your system of choice could possibly outweigh the expense and burden of printing two editions of every product- editions that differ only in the measurements used.

True for combat distance. But overland distances and weights are still all firmly Imperial.

 

[Kask]

Am I missing a clever allusion to microfortnights here, or is this a bit of a nonsequitur?

Cheers, -- N

Neither. Read your question again regarding feedback from scientists using a system. I gave you one.

 

[Nifft]

Neither. Read your question again regarding feedback from scientists using a system. I gave you one.

Actually, I'd asked for feedback from scientists who have used both. But thank you for asking me to go back and re-read what I'd just written. That's helpful and not rude at all.

Ciao, -- N

 

[Kask]

That's helpful and not rude at all.

And, so was your comment about me being nonsequitur...