[MUD-Dev] Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games

[ceo]

Johan A wrote:
> ceo <ceo at grexengine.com> wrote:
>> Michael Hartman wrote:

>> For instance, if we only ever measured weight in kilograms it
>> would be a PITA to do any cooking, counting in 0.001's of a kg.

> You know we do have kg, hg, g, ml for example ;)

It was a poor choice of example (although kg is the SI unit) so I'm
afraid you've missed the point: it's not "does a unit exist in that
scale that is not hugely out of convenient range" it's more "does a
unit exist at that scale that has a simple basic relationship to
items at that scale"

For instance, it's rather handy to measure density with 1 == water,
since the density of water is something we can all relate to and is
(approximately) mid way between the most dense and least dense
things we encounter.

Similarly, feet are much more convenient to measure distances less
than your total reach / height + reach than metres are because a
metre is only measurable if you have a one-metre ruler or have
memorised your height in centimetres.

Not only is one foot approx. "length of an adult's foot" (which is
highly variable) but much more usefully for young men (shrug) is the
fact that many of us are very close to 6 foot in height, making it
easy to measure things quickly and actually rather accurately by
comparing them to your own height.

Try doing the same when your height is 185cm...

Disclaimer: I'm tryign to rationalize other people's attachment
here. It happens that I'm 6"1 so feet are very good for me
personally, and e.g. probably quite poor for JC, but I'm not
personally defending the system.

PS please be more careful with quoting / attributions.

Adam M
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