How do you handle units of measurement in SF&F?

I take it on a case by case. If they're even remotely human, I'm likely to use the metric system. I still get oddly weirded out by futuristic societies using Imperial measurements.

Make up my own but have them make sense so the reader isn't constantly scratching their head or translating.

For fantasy I've mainly used common imperial measurements with a couple of ancient ones, where relevant. IMO this aims to reach a balance of using older period terms, while still being reasonably familiar enough to a modern audience. Terms such as "furlong" are definitely out as being meaningless to most readers, and if a term may not be entirely clear, then some sort of provision for context when first raising it can be helpful.

For science fiction you're looking at a whole load of pain if you significantly move away from most terminology, simply because a writer is often dependent upon these to communicate consistency - especially if you're introducing new tech that a reader needs to be able to reasonably grasp. Most won't blink an eye if you mention something like a light-year, but if you say something is 3.867 Krapchas away, you're in danger of kicking the reader out of the text in order to try and understand it.

Metric works fine and makes sense for SF.

For fantasy I prefer to read familiar Imperial measurements rather than have to try and figure out how much a Talent is worth or whether a half Gill measure is a big drink or a small one, or if I can ride twenty leagues in a day or not. Those are all real historical measures, but I and I would assume most readers aren't really familiar with them.

Metric. Even the United Staes is moving to metric, but it's inch-by-inch.

Actually, it depends on the story. The current work in progress is mainly on Earth, so metric works fine. Off-planet with non-humans is either made up or skillfully avoided.

Just as an aside, we Brits use Imperial and Metric, depending on what we're measuring. But officially, it's Metric.

In sci-fi, I'd use metric. The vast majority of readers won't blink at it. The last time I noticed a different system in use was Farscape. But it mostly for time and distance and easy to work out.

mirandashell said:

Just as an aside, we Brits use Imperial and Metric, depending on what we're measuring. But officially, it's Metric.

In sci-fi, I'd use metric. The vast majority of readers won't blink at it. The last time I noticed a different system in use was Farscape. But it mostly for time and distance and easy to work out.

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Really? What do you still use the Imperial system for?

I went with a sort of hybrid. I use things like "stride" and "hand" and "knuckle length" for smaller measures, but I'm wavering between leagues and miles for longer (I think if I use miles, most will assume something close to modern miles as still used in the US, not Roman miles or something).

I tend to avoid exact distance references, though, and instead use things like "an easy day's ride" or "an hour's walk." I'm not sure what to use for weights, though in the stories I've written so far, I haven't needed to reference them.

I was originally going to go with stones and tonnes, since I was originally shooting for an English feel with the society where most of the story takes place, but I'm trying to expunge that and go for something that doesn't evoke a particular culture at all, since everyone and their dog is saying they're sick of British feeling fantasy (it's my comfort food, but really, my vaguely matriarchal culture isn't terribly British anyway). The only time I may need to reference exact size (as in feet) and weight is with ships, maybe, as I've got something in the works where they'll be on a warship, and they were often referred to by length and by how much displacement they had. But I could just go with the number of decks or guns instead.

_TOG_ said:

Really? What do you still use the Imperial system for?

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Canada's like this, too.

Height and weight of a person is almost always imperial. Distance driven in a car is probably metric, but a casual estimate might be imperial. Measures of alcohol are generally imperial (a 40, an ounce, a pint, etc.) but of other things, like gasoline and milk, are metric.

I think it's partly because we're so close to the US - we know imperial because of them, so there's no big push to switch to metric across the board.

_TOG_ said:

Really? What do you still use the Imperial system for?

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Measuring margarine, I expect.

As an American, I've been hearing how we're going metric since grade school. I'm 40, and still don't see it. (But, then, I also grew up hearing how a local volcano, Mr. Baker, was going to blow its top any minute now... which also is still there, unblown, and no longer really talked about. These days, it's Rainier that's "due.")

I seldom use units of measurement, but I love to read odd units being put to use. One of the few things I can remember about Journey to the Center of the Earth by Verne was that the main characters hired an Icelander who was famous for collecting eider down, and the guide used Icelandic miles, which are roughly equal to 17 English miles. As in, "It's about a mile down the road."

Running into old Russian units is also interesting.

As I understand it, the U.S.A. did officially convert to the so-called metric system quite a while ago, but the normal units can still be used, if metric units are also on the thing. It would have been a lot easier for everyone, if the meter had been defined as 40 inches, instead of 39.37 inches, then both could be side by side and easily converted.

But if someone hadn't redefined either the ounce or the inch (I can't remember which), then one cubic inch would still equal one fluid, and that would equal ounce avoirdupois. But one ounce is 1.04 cubic inches now.

When I see metric measurements in a text I skip right over them. If the author says something like, "so and so walked X kilometers," I think in my head - I know the conversion to miles. If it's not terrible or a common one like 5 km is close to 3 miles I can do it. Buuuuut....I'm not going to convert mid-stream. So I ignore it. I just figure they walked a while.

If you tell me a character drank a 2-liter of Coke, I'm totally with you. That's common. But it's about the only thing that is.

_TOG_ said:

Really? What do you still use the Imperial system for?

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I remember reading somewhere that bananas are still sold via the imperial system over there. No idea if this is true, or why bananas are special among all fruits.

The US is still officially "old English" with regards to things like road signs, commerce and so on. Road signs and speed limits are still in mph, for instance, and your doctor gives you your weight in pounds, not your mass in kilograms. If you land at a US airport, the pilot will give you the ground temperature in degrees Fahrenheit (in Canada, they give in in Celsius, and their road signs and speed limits are in km). Science is metric, but engineering is often in old English, which is why one of our Mars orbiters failed (someone forgot to do a conversion).

^ Same, but the other way. I've got no idea how much a gallon, a pound or an ounce are. I can sort of picture an inch in my head. I know a mile is roughly 1.6 km, but it's rare I'll actually try to do the maths in my head.

Roxxsmom said:

I remember reading somewhere that bananas are still sold via the imperial system over there. No idea if this is true, or why bananas are special among all fruits.

The US is still officially "old English" with regards to things like road signs, commerce and so on. Road signs and speed limits are still in mph, for instance, and your doctor gives you your weight in pounds, not your mass in kilograms. If you land at a US airport, the pilot will give you the ground temperature in degrees Fahrenheit (in Canada, they give in in Celsius, and their road signs and speed limits are in km). Science is metric, but engineering is often in old English, which is why one of our Mars orbiters failed (someone forgot to do a conversion).

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Even American science, or at least medicine, uses different units to the rest of the world, though they're technically metric. For instance, the USA still reports a lot of biochemistry tests in mg/dL, whereas everywhere else has switched to mmol/L.

Albedo said:

Even American science, or at least medicine, uses different units to the rest of the world, though they're technically metric. For instance, the USA still reports a lot of biochemistry tests in mg/dL, whereas everywhere else has switched to mmol/L.

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True. We get our medical reports for blood sugar in mg/dl for instance. We like to be weird for some reason. The fact that the rest of the world does something differently generally strengthens our conviction that our own way is best.

Roxxsmom said:

The fact that the rest of the world does something differently generally strengthens our conviction that our own way is best.

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Probably.

I'd like to teach my children the way everybody else understands weights and measures (as soon as I learn it myself) but there would be very little applicability. I know America "officially adopted" the metric system decades ago, but I honestly doubt it will change in my lifetime. Or my children's.

Oh! I thought of another unit I understand - a bottle of wine is 750 mL. Which is largely understood around here to mean two healthy 12 oz glasses.

Most people in the U.S. today are fully cognizant of both the old imperial units and the metric system. It's really not that big a problem anymore. But some important things (vehicle speed limits, for example) are still universally expressed in miles-per-hour. That's one of the reasons I love to drive in Canada: On highways the signs say you get to go 100.

caw

We do a measurement lab at the beginning of every semester, and you'd be surprised at how many young college students don't know how to use metric and how many weren't even introduced to it in K-12.

Just for info, the U.S. military entirely uses metric, and has done so for a long time. A common slang in Vietnam for distance was a "klick", which meant a kilometer.

caw