D&D 4E Should 4e convert to metric?

[Dunamin]

I'm voting metric, though I wish the part about France was divorced from it.

Of course, I'm doubly biased in having grown up in metric society and being a scientist (SI standard ftw)! I do appreciate the notion of a foot being about the size of a human foot, but the strange conversions with 12 inch to a foot, 3 foot to a yard, and so on its just so... Harry Potter!

 

[arscott]

Yeah, we're rounding - just as people usually won't say that's 5' 1" away, but would rather estimate it as 5'. And what's fake about the decimeter?

Maybe it's just an American thing (insofar as anything related to the metric system can be called an "American thing"), but I was under the impression that decimeter was among the category of metric units that technically exist but don't actually get used in real life. Calling it fake is just me trying to be funny at 2 in the morning (PDT).

As far as the estimating thing goes--the difference is that with feet and inches, the precision typically corresponds with the unit in question. That is, we're rounding to the nearest foot, not the nearest tenth of a foot or the nearest ten feet. Thats a useful thing to have in a system of measurement.

 

[arscott]

Of course, I'm doubly biased in having grown up in metric society and being a scientist (SI standard ftw)! I do appreciate the notion of a foot being about the size of a human foot, but the strange conversions with 12 inch to a foot, 3 foot to a yard, and so on its just so... Harry Potter!

It is so harry potter. And that's what makes it so appropriate for a game with magic and monsters in it.

 

[WhatGravitas]

Maybe it's just an American thing (insofar as anything related to the metric system can be called an "American thing"), but I was under the impression that decimeter was among the category of metric units that technically exist but don't actually get used in real life. Calling it fake is just me trying to be funny at 2 in the morning (PDT).

Well, we usually also just say 10 centimetres instead of decimetres. So I just failed my Humour roll

But it's the base for litres (one cubic decimetre).

Note: As a Physics student, I'm obviously enormously biased - SI units are much better for scientific purposes. Plus, I grew up in a metric country (Germany).

Cheers, LT.

 

[Dunamin]

Maybe it's just an American thing (insofar as anything related to the metric system can be called an "American thing"), but I was under the impression that decimeter was among the category of metric units that technically exist but don't actually get used in real life. Calling it fake is just me trying to be funny at 2 in the morning (PDT).

I don't know about decimeters but I pretty much use deciliters every day - whenever I'm cooking that's the unit I measure rice and water in, for instance.
I suppose decimeters have more use with volume conversion, since 1 L = 1 cubic dm.

 

[trancejeremy]

And if you're brought up with the metric system, it's hard to visualize the length of a foot. Really.

Well, you completely missed my point - a foot is roughly the length of a human foot. Most people have feet and should be able to relate to the length of a foot as a unit of length. If you have trouble visualizing a foot, just look down.

And like I said, obviously not everyone's foot is a foot, but most are close, so it's a handy frame of reference. There is no handy frame of reference for the meter. Unless you want to try to visualize a little more than 3 feet.

 

[Dunamin]

It is so harry potter. And that's what makes it so appropriate for a game with magic and monsters in it.

I do appreciate the flavour of it, just not the "clunkiness" and slowdown during conversion when its put into practice (though this wouldn't hold true for imperial users, of course).

Its the same way Quidditch sounds fascinating when read in a novel, but awful when actually played as a game (yes, I once played a demo of a Quidditch game ).

 

[DeusExMachina]

You are aware that the US officially uses the metric system?

From what I heard there was a plan in the government to convert, but it turns out that the expenses of replacing all the speed limit signs with km/h instead of miles/h was simply too high to be worth it...

 

[WhatGravitas]

There is no handy frame of reference for the meter. Unless you want to try to visualize a little more than 3 feet.

There is - make one step forward. Since the distance between the feet by making a step is roughly another foot, it's about three foot, i.e. a metre. Which makes metres great for measuring distances - count your steps. My father, as architect, does it all the time to estimate distances.

Sure, it doesn't hold true for smaller or taller people - but neither does the foot.

Cheers, LT.

 

[trancejeremy]

Note: As a Physics student, I'm obviously enormously biased - SI units are much better for scientific purposes. Plus, I grew up in a metric country (Germany).

Well, see, that's the thing, they are better for scientific stuff, but for every day life, Imperial is better (IMHO). Because it was largely designed from everyday life. When people needed a unit of measure, they used whatever was handy, or (like Farhenheit) they tried to base it on the range of human experience. OTOH, the metric system was designed for science. Even though 99% of the people in the world aren't scientists.

Even countries that did go metric, didn't go completely metric. No one uses metric time, for instance. Instead of using kiloseconds or whatever, they still use hours and days.