Would you play a TTRPG that used Meters instead of Feet?

[payn]

I'm from Canada, but I'm used to whatever strange mix we use here.

The experience is not the same for every Canadian (big country), but in my thick of the woods...

• I measure 6 foot and 1 inch.
• Anything construction related is in foot and inches.
• I buy a two litres of soft liquor at the store.
• And a gallon of milk.
• You drive a few kilometers, but you see something coming from a mile away.
• When it's cold during the winter, it's -30 degrees celcius.
• It's universally known that the human body is at around 37.5 degrees celcius, but if you're over 100 fahrenheit you might have a fever!
• But I put my oven at 350 fahrenheit.
• My sister just had her baby. A seven pounds healthy boy.
• My new refregirator was hard to move around, it weighted almost 250 kilograms.
• Don't speed when you drive, remember you're in a two tons machine!

I've got a solid understanding of what a foot is because we also use that. But I've got no idea what a yard is.

 

[Willie the Duck]

I'm from Canada, but I'm used to whatever strange mix we use here.
The experience is not the same for every Canadian (big country), but in my thick of the woods...

• Anything construction related is in foot and inches.

That one boggles my mind.
I have a number of people at work who are non-US-born*, and the discussion about why the U.S. doesn't go metric comes up every so often. I explain that, for the average person living their lives (the ones you need onboard to make such a switch) -- especially since most professions where there is a hassle already use metric-- the biggest benefits of metric don't frequently come up. You usually don't have to switch between units, and like Morris' 'bizzleberries' point, as long as you stay within a unit, it doesn't usually matter. Your car can have MPH or KPH on the dial, and so long as it matches the speed limit sign, you're good**. The one really good example I've always had that is an exception to that is construction/home projects -- ex. 'the room needs twelve feet, three-and-three-quarters inches of trim on that wall and you have a piece that is seven feet, eight and five-eighth inches long, how long a piece do you have to cut off another 10' section to complete it?' It seems so odd to me that that a society that mixes and matches units wouldn't have diverged metric for that.
*Also, I DM for a high school group where perpetually someone just took HS physics and just learned the benefits of metric systems, but hasn't learned as much regarding the difficulties of making major societal changes, so the question comes up there as well.
**sure it's easier to convert KPH to m/s than MPH to ft/s, but most people rarelyhave to.

 

[Lanefan]

kind of like x-thousand meters?

Kind of. More like it goes:

"How far is it to [place x]?"
"20 kay"
"20 kay what? Miles? Kilometers? Meters? Feet? [etc.]"

As opposed to asking "How many [whatevers] are there?", where the answer "20 kay" always means 20,000.

 

[Lanefan]

The one really good example I've always had that is an exception to that is construction/home projects -- ex. 'the room needs twelve feet, three-and-three-quarters inches of trim on that wall and you have a piece that is seven feet, eight and five-eighth inches long, how long a piece do you have to cut off another 10' section to complete it?' It seems so odd to me that that a society that mixes and matches units wouldn't have diverged metric for that.

That touches on one reason I suspect imperial mesaurements have stuck around in construction and a few other milieux: fractions (half, quarter, eighth, etc.) are easier to visualize/conceptualize than decimals in how they relate to each other. Not easier to count-add-subtract, perhaps, but to visualize.

I mean, if someone asks how much is left in a part-full milk bottle most (as in nearly all) people would answer "about half" or "about a third" rather than "about point 5" or "about point 3".

 

[Thomas Shey]

I've seen people use the term "half a klick (kilometer)" before, and while its more specific "50 centiliters" and "half a liter" mean the same thing, and in common usage the latter is probably used more often (in science or medicine the former--well, probably 500 mililiters because centiliters are a legit but uncommonly used term--would be more common).

Basically, there's nothing about metric that requires precision, and in common use no one is more prone to it than with Imperial measurement.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Yes, and I'm from the US. But then again, I'm a veteran, and we use meters instead of yards, kilometers instead of miles. when I lived overseas, it was so much easier.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

American archaeologists weirdly enough use metric for almost everything except for historic structure measurements. Our reports though still provide both metric and imperial. At almost two decades of working, I can say I can "see" 15-, 30-, 50-, and 100-meter distances.

Archeologists being conversant in both systems feels right. Heck, you all probably understand furlongs and know how long various kings' feet were, as well.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I've got a solid understanding of what a foot is because we also use that. But I've got no idea what a yard is.

It's so close to a meter that you can just mentally equate the two.

 

[Tonguez]

That touches on one reason I suspect imperial mesaurements have stuck around in construction and a few other milieux: fractions (half, quarter, eighth, etc.) are easier to visualize/conceptualize than decimals in how they relate to each other. Not easier to count-add-subtract, perhaps, but to visualize.

I mean, if someone asks how much is left in a part-full milk bottle most (as in nearly all) people would answer "about half" or "about a third" rather than "about point 5" or "about point 3".

Not really, you can talk about half and quarter meters, and 2.5 meters is much easier than 2.73403 yards (I jave no idea how to express that in imperial)

and most people when talking about a milk bottle would say something like 50% rather than .5.
It does amuse me that the metric pint is 500ml (half a litre) rather than 20 fluid ounces or 1/8 of a gallon.

 

[CubicsRube]

Where you are, maybe. Round here if someone says something is x "kay" or x "kays" it means they're trying to say it's x-thousand.

It's both for us depending on context.

Maybe it's an Australian thing? We need to talk distances a lot "200 Ks left to melbourne, almost there!"