Imperial versus Metric System (Or Something Else?)

[Wintercat]

So, I have used both of these systems, I live in Finland so the Metric System is what I am more familiar with, and my go-to system in most matters, but I like writing stories on the internet, and in many cases those stories deal with either American setting, or a world set in earlier ages where Metric System would make far less sense, so the Imperial system would be more logical to use.

I found it amusing when the question popped up in someone else's story discussion, that the person in question believed Imperial system was the one that most of the world uses, as opposed to Metric System. From all I've seen, both are in use, sure, but America leans heavily on the Imperial system, but Metric System is one that is in use in most other places. That said, both exist, and there is likely other, perhaps older, systems out there that have their own fans and at least regional use, perhaps back in history or even the present day.

I was considering what folks run into in their daily lives more, and what their impressions are of the opposite side of the debate, and additionally what other systems there might be that get less attention when the Imperial versus Metric system arguments pop up?

Mostly it came to mind because I was amused to run into a clip about British Measurements.. well, definitely made with humor, but hope folks get a chuckle out of it.

Spoiler: SFW Video (Youtube Short), but Spoilered for Phone users convenience

View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IPbrOi5cOGM

So, I'm living in Finland and I use metric system, but I find the Imperial system amusing to use in fantasy stories and I can make reasonable comparisons and conversion into Imperial if I need to use it in a story taking place in America as a setting. How is it in other countries and experienced by other people?

EDIT: The previous video is British version, but I only the American one afterwards, and felt it ought to be added in for humor and amusement.

Spoiler: SFW Video (Youtube Short), but Spoilered for Phone users convenience

View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/oNoh4i6G-js

 

[humon]

In Canada we use both for different purposes. We are officially on the Metric system, but people also throw around Imperial measurements day-to-day as a legacy of being a British colony and also having a lot of cultural overlap with the States. The way I see it is this:
- If you're doing science, Metric is far superior, just because it makes all of the math a lot easier.
- If you're describing day to day things, Imperial has more charm to it, because Imperial measurements are based on common experience.

For example, a pound is meant to be the weight of a stone that fits well in the hand. A foot is meant to be the length of a man's foot, an inch the width of his thumb and a yard the distance of his stride when running. A gallon is the ideal size for a bucket of water that you can carry in one hand. An ounce is the ideal amount of liquor to fill your mouth with in one gulp, etc, etc. So things like measuring a person's height, it's always easier for me to think about it in feet and inches. Centimetres is just one big number that I have to pause and convert. But when it comes to anything where I rely on signs or packaging, like driving on the road in km/h or reading the weight of a cereal box in grams or the volume of a pop bottle in mL, then I'll always use metric because that's what external information I'm working with. For temperature, I normally use Celsius as a personal preference, because it's a lot simpler than Fahrenheit, but I convert readily because some thermometers will only show one or the other, and it's useful to be able to convert when traveling in the States for example.

When writing, I just use whatever system I'm accustomed to. I don't try to fit it to the setting. Sometimes I'll even use both systems at once, like I'll talk about traveling 10 miles between towns, but then I'll say that something's happening 200 metres away (because for short distances I'm used to the Olympics using metric), and then later that two swordsmen are standing five or ten feet apart (as in D&D). I just go with whatever I would normally say in conversation. One notable exception is when I was writing a story about ancient Rome, and I listed distances in Roman miles (and in one case, Gallic leagues), but then I felt compelled to also state how many Imperial miles that would convert to, so as not to confuse the reader with the ambiguity of the word 'mile'. The most important thing is that the reader understands what you mean, and if you're writing for an international audience then just do whatever and accept that half of them will just need to do conversions in their heads.

 

[Soupervan]

I use what I'm used to- metric, but when reading stories I don't care which the author uses, if I want to know what it means it's as easy as googling for a convertor.

Custom measurement systems can be amusing too, I love how the Naruto fandom has collectively decided to use Kakashi as a unit of measuring energy for example, it's even better when poor Kakashi learns about it since the comparison is often rather unfavorable.

 

[Colonel "Bardak"]

The metric system in all cases.

Although for some of the settings and fanfictions that I sometimes try to write, I use the closest and most similar system.

 

[Renko]

The Metric is used from where I'm at.

 

[shadowdice]

I know metric due to science classes but when I look at stuff I do not think "oh that guy's about 1.8 meters tall" or gauge distance in kilometers. I'm sure someone who uses it all the time might for at least the latter.

For fantasy stories, unless it is a wizard or alchemist it feels weird to hear them use metric even if the system is older than imperial. Science fiction is one where I expect people to be using metric to describe stuff like distance and ship dimensions.

Overall I do not particularly care as writers will probably use whatever they are more familiar with since it is less trouble for them, that and I don't expect people to make their own systems of measurement for worlds they create.

 

[Jarski]

I'm British so mostly Imperial units. As Humon put it:

Imperial measurements are based on common experience.

Click to shrink...

I use Metric for cooking and a few other things, but it has the problem of that degree of separation, but more importantly, is French!

 

[zecorezecron]

The best unit of length to use is the hydrogen line. Then American units. Everything else is trash.

 

[Wintercat]

In Canada we use both for different purposes. We are officially on the Metric system, but people also throw around Imperial measurements day-to-day as a legacy of being a British colony and also having a lot of cultural overlap with the States. The way I see it is this:
- If you're doing science, Metric is far superior, just because it makes all of the math a lot easier.
- If you're describing day to day things, Imperial has more charm to it, because Imperial measurements are based on common experience.

For example, a pound is meant to be the weight of a stone that fits well in the hand. A foot is meant to be the length of a man's foot, an inch the width of his thumb and a yard the distance of his stride when running. A gallon is the ideal size for a bucket of water that you can carry in one hand. An ounce is the ideal amount of liquor to fill your mouth with in one gulp, etc, etc. So things like measuring a person's height, it's always easier for me to think about it in feet and inches. Centimetres is just one big number that I have to pause and convert. But when it comes to anything where I rely on signs or packaging, like driving on the road in km/h or reading the weight of a cereal box in grams or the volume of a pop bottle in mL, then I'll always use metric because that's what external information I'm working with. For temperature, I normally use Celsius as a personal preference, because it's a lot simpler than Fahrenheit, but I convert readily because some thermometers will only show one or the other, and it's useful to be able to convert when traveling in the States for example.

When writing, I just use whatever system I'm accustomed to. I don't try to fit it to the setting. Sometimes I'll even use both systems at once, like I'll talk about traveling 10 miles between towns, but then I'll say that something's happening 200 metres away (because for short distances I'm used to the Olympics using metric), and then later that two swordsmen are standing five or ten feet apart (as in D&D). I just go with whatever I would normally say in conversation. One notable exception is when I was writing a story about ancient Rome, and I listed distances in Roman miles (and in one case, Gallic leagues), but then I felt compelled to also state how many Imperial miles that would convert to, so as not to confuse the reader with the ambiguity of the word 'mile'. The most important thing is that the reader understands what you mean, and if you're writing for an international audience then just do whatever and accept that half of them will just need to do conversions in their heads.

Click to shrink...

I can definitely see the reasoning behind using what is more comfortable in a familiar setting, I've found both systems to have their advantages and disadvantages, I personally prefer Metric as it is what I am used to, but I have seen the sense in using another system, like the Imperial system, in some circumstances. It feels far more at home with those 'common experiences' in different settings, and I think it works when you think back at how things were experienced in the past.

Foot for one person might be less or more to another person, but it was still understandable enough to get a general picture, when the measurements did not have to be as absolute in some cases, and the common day to day occurrences meant those were quick and easy to follow instructions in a hurry. In more modern times, the Imperial is a tad more precise too but the general rule of thumb for estimating still works, with some variety between people, but it is easy enough to grasp, where as metric seems to have its own challenge on that front. With precise measuring, I still vastly prefer metric system, but again, its a preference, not a statement of superiority. I do believe majority of calculations in scientific setting are done in Metric because of the fact there's still a few different standards with Imperial measurements, British and American measurements being both considered imperial, but having differences, so putting it all in Metric took out some ambiguity I suppose?

Regardless, its a very good viewpoint to have and useful to hear these things, it also helps a guy who isn't using the imperial daily get a better understanding of how and why it would get so ingrained in people in the countries where it is prevalent choice.

Thanks for the answer. I was thinking of speaking with a few other commenting folks too, so figured I should give a respectful nod at the detailed answer here as others seem to have noted it respectfully here as well.

I know metric due to science classes but when I look at stuff I do not think "oh that guy's about 1.8 meters tall" or gauge distance in kilometers. I'm sure someone who uses it all the time might for at least the latter.

For fantasy stories, unless it is a wizard or alchemist it feels weird to hear them use metric even if the system is older than imperial. Science fiction is one where I expect people to be using metric to describe stuff like distance and ship dimensions.

Overall I do not particularly care as writers will probably use whatever they are more familiar with since it is less trouble for them, that and I don't expect people to make their own systems of measurement for worlds they create.

Click to shrink...

I've played around a lot with alchemists in stories, and most of the stuff there is 'pinch of this' or 'a tablespoon of that' as well as 'three drops of this' and so on. It tends to be a tad closer to cooking measurements. So yeah, I can definitely agree on it being reasonable to go with imperial styled system.

Another thing I've noticed, when playing around with some stories, a naval story had me a bit stumped because nautical miles are not something I run into too often, as well as measuring speed in knots. I have looked into both measurements and conversions when I needed to use them, but I found them both to be a tad more baffling when writing out something, yet after finding a conversion it went easy enough at the end.

The case where it became necessary was on writing on the Silent Service during World War II in the Pacific, writing about a submarine warfare in a few story snippets, I haven't posted those snippets on QQ or elsewhere as I found them a tad distasteful, and a bit bloodthirsty, but it played along the lines of a close-knit crew in close-quarters for extended periods of time. Lots of technical conversation sprinkled in based on some movies and information acquire from a few game of that time, as well as comments from some historical accounts. Still, engine speeds in knots, estimating a target's likely course and the distance in nautical miles, it was an experimentation on my part, wanting to try and ground a story a bit more in reality.

It was amusing, because in a lot of ways, the submarine combat of that era could share similarities to Science-Fiction stories in some ways, but it was very dominantly imperial system in use aboard the Silent Service, and it provided its own bit of unique challenge. Ultimately, I felt the idea should be scrapped, when a friend of mine that knows a lot more about technical side of things noted that it was amusing but leaning a bit too much on Hollywood flair than realistic depiction of the tension of the hunt that service had to endure.

Still, it was an amusing time where very technical and science-grounded story setting had a lot of things to be stated in Imperial units, an amusing touch, not quite sci-fi but yet coming to similar feel with a lot of the technical stuff at work and the importance of having every system operating, and the procedures when things did go wrong.

I'm British so mostly Imperial units. As Humon put it:

I use Metric for cooking and a few other things, but it has the problem of that degree of separation, but more importantly, is French!

Click to shrink...

Fair enough, and I can't fault a British person for embracing Imperial units, and if the alternative is French, I can certainly acknowledge that is a very good reason when viewing things through British cultural lens.

I do like to explore both Imperial, and the Metric system in stories, but it depends on the story, and what fits where best. I've had both in use in some stories for a similar reason anyway, and seen it in others stories.

Always glad to see and hear others experiences, as I'm surrounded by people in my normal life that use exclusively metric system, but on-line I see a fair bit of comments back and forth on it, and a lot of the English speaking countries do naturally have the Imperial system's presence in them, from the Age where the Shadow Never Set in the Empire.