SF, imperial measurement or metric

I think it makes perfect sense to use metric in a scientific or "international" setting. Most of us have seen the other side of the ruler and have a general idea of what a centimeter is. (And it will be much more believable to those of us who are in STEM fields and/or from outside the US.)

However, it's also worth noting that measurements and standards tend to be an invisible thing to most people. You can use the term "two inches" or "one hour" in a book that takes place in a totally different world and no one will even notice.

(With that said, I try to stay away from standard measurements since I found it unbelievable that people in a fantasy world would use all the same ones we do. But I don't want to make up new words that would confuse people, so I just use vague terms like "a moment" or "a hands-breadth" when writing from the POV of a character from that world.)

I'd say that people who generally read science fiction, have at least a reasonably informed idea what 30 cm is.

In a couple of WIPs I'm working on that are fantasy in a non-western setting I've battled with this issue a bit. Instead of inventing (or using for example an old Chinese imperial measurement system) I use something that everyone can easily understand. Like palm's width, three-man tall, etc. Most of the times when I'm writing a scene that needs to convey length, I reconsider if it actually needs it, and most times end up skipping the exact length. It's fairly easy to write around it, if you don't want to ruin the immersion, but want to convey some sort of idea how far an object is etc.

Laneer said:

I'm sure this topic has been covered before, but I couldn't find it.

I'm using metric in my SF opera novel. I'm wondering if I should use imperial measurement instead? Feet, yards, miles?

I noticed in the book "Old Man's War" the few times they use measurements it's imperial. But they mention that the protagonist used imperial measurement up until he joined the military.

I don't want to send readers to google to look up what 30 centimeters is equivalent to, but it seems ridiculous for imperial measurement to be standard in the future.

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Agreeing with others that many of your readers will already have at least a rough idea of what a centimeter is, even if they're in one of the few countries that still inexplicably uses the random-as-heck Imperial system (and, yes, I'm an American, and even though I wasn't raised with metric and still think in imperial terms I can see metric makes more sense.) You could also invent new measurements if/where it makes sense - say, an isolated/alien world that developed its own system - with some context to help readers figure it out.

Personally, I see metric winning out in a scientific setting (such as the first space colonies) then carrying on by tradition, but humans are nothing if not illogical; we might well still be stubbornly dragging our feet, inches, and miles to the stars with us.

Either way, it's unlikely to throw the reader sufficiently for them to stop reading.

I don't see any issue with using the metric system, especially in a scientifically-oriented environment. I am inclined to agree with you that it's the most likely unit of distance to become prevalent in the (near?) future (heck, it just became a constant of nature.) On the other hand, if the people in the story aren't dealing with engineering or science, then I don't really mind. The popular units may differ from the ones used in STEM fields, as is evident today.

Now, I don't think the above is going to change even if your story takes place in another world, different from our own, with other peoples populating it. There's something I like to call the translation principle (I don't know if it has another name.) Essentially it means that you, as a writer, may change elements of the story to make the reader's life easier. A very common example is translating languages, because not all peoples in every possible imaginary world speak English. The translation still has to be faithful, though, retaining the original meaning and connotation of the altered element.
Now, presented like that, the issue of units seems almost insignificant. After all, if the world you're creating isn't our own, why is the language the same? And if you're changing that, why keep the units intact, unless they hold some significance to the story itself? If you have alien engineers using alien scientific units, why not translate them to our scientific units? The transition is ought to be smoother than actually using invented alien units.

Laneer said:

I don't want to send readers to google to look up what 30 centimeters is equivalent to

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That might be a thing to consider, if you're aiming to publish in places that use the imperial system more . . . obstinately. But even then, I don't think it's something to worry about. Write the best story, worry about localization later.

Good luck!

I can tell you how measurements presented in metrics come across to me as a person who does not understand them well. I understand smaller measures better. Mm, mL, cm - those are pretty easy. Measures close to yard are next. So if you say "25 meters," I know that means roughly the length of a swimming pool or "100 meters" is a football (USA kind of sportsball, not everyone else's) field. But when you get to bigger measures, like kilometer, or kilogram, I have no clue. When an author writes that, I think, "OK, the character went a long way," and sort of gloss over it. But I also live in a place where distance is measured in time. For example, "How far is your commute to work?" Answer: "35 minutes." Unless you start using light years, and then I don't know what that is, either, and I default to the "a long way, carry on" understanding.

I'm guessing that measurement will be in metric on any far future settlement or space station or whatever. Most of the world is already there, and it's already the language of science. I'd raise an eyebrow at a futuristic setting that used imperial-style measures, unless there was an explanation for it (like they were being forcefully or obstinately retro).

I don't think there are many people left, even in the US, who lack at least a nodding acquaintance with the metric system anyway. If anyone does, there's this wonderful thing called Google. I use it occasionally if I run across a term I don't understand in my reading.

Metric, it's the standard science uses most of the time** .


**

Roxxsmom said:

I'm guessing that measurement will be in metric on any far future settlement or space station or whatever. Most of the world is already there, and it's already the language of science. I'd raise an eyebrow at a futuristic setting that used imperial-style measures, unless there was an explanation for it (like they were being forcefully or obstinately retro).

I don't think there are many people left, even in the US, who lack at least a nodding acquaintance with the metric system anyway. If anyone does, there's this wonderful thing called Google. I use it occasionally if I run across a term I don't understand in my reading.

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I gave somebody a critique on their sci-fi recently and they were using the imperial system. It was far future, earth far behind us sci-fi, and I pointed out that if you look at aaallll the things we've got on earth right now that we might take with us into space, the imperial system of measurement probably isn't one of them.

To the OP's question about needing to looking things up, here are my thoughts on that. As far as a story is concerned, a mile and a kilometer are about the same distance. A short walk, a real short drive, but too far away to have a conversation over.

Just so long as you don't break out cubits and ells and spans. Some fantasy authors like to do that (Looking at you Tad Williams), and I gotta say, I was really annoyed that I needed to go look them up. But that goes back to my above point. I have context for a foot vs a meter (In as much as they are smaller portions of a mile/kilometer). I have no idea what the hell an ell actually measured. Literally the distance between the tip of a middle finger and the elbow. Because of course it is.

Cal_Darin said:

Literally the distance between the tip of a middle finger and the elbow. Because of course it is.

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*Looks at hand and forearm*

This is cleary the superior measurement system.

I remember the Expanse series uses metric consistently, despite the fact that it's a series written by Americans featuring Americans. I'd go metric.

This is a problem I have wrestled with. Being educated in the UK during the (partial*) transition I am comfortable with either, although I wouldn't have liked to have studied engineering in imperial units!

The thing that trips me up is that many measurements are figures of speech and don't bear scrutiny - miss by a yard, jump a clear foot in the air, run a mile at the sight of a ghost etc. etc. whereas others are more precise - the gap was over two metres, he'd never jump that. Also, like most Brits, I tend to use Fahrenheit when it's hot and Celsius when it's cold so a hot day in the UK is over 90 whilst a cold one is -2!

I tend to avoid direct measurements where possible and otherwise go with what feels comfortable - readers who pick me up on the issue are gonna find something, even if there was an absolute and correct solution to this (c:


*We never quite made it; we buy soft drinks in litres and beer by the pint. We sort of buy milk by the litre - the carton in my fridge holds 1.136l... which happens to be 2 pints! We buy sugar by the kilo and fuel by the litre - but our speed limits are in MPH and we measure mileage in MPG. The greengrocer my local market marks his prices up in whatever measurement suits him; something at a £1/lb would never be marked at £2.20/kilo, and similarly something at £5/kilo would never be £2.27/lb

It's no wonder that the rest of the world thinks we're odd.

I'm also writing a scfi book set in space, and I face a difficulty in expressing large distances. Mile ain't gonna work, neither does kilometer. It sounds silly to say "Captain, suspicious ships lurking at three hundred eighty five thousand kilometers away!" (That's about the distance from Earth to the Moon, and probably how distant apart future FTL warships will fight against each other, rather than the toe-to-toe distance depicted in the famous Starship Enterprise vs Klingo battlecruiser scenes.) I ended up using light-seconds and light-minutes to measure these less-than-AU distances.

As for depicting 30 centimeters or twelve inches, I'd suggest using alternatives like "the self-destruction device is a forearm away" to totally skirt the measurement issue.

Personally, I will toss away scfi books that use imperial system to portray events in space, especially when the military is involved. Scfi books set on Earth, anything is fine.

Cal_Darin said:

Just so long as you don't break out cubits and ells and spans. Some fantasy authors like to do that (Looking at you Tad Williams), and I gotta say, I was really annoyed that I needed to go look them up.

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There's places for this because these measurements are general enough to give you an idea of length, but not so precise as to give the impression your characters are walking around with a tape measure. "The dagger's blade was a span in length and three fingers broad; more than capable of opening his belly if he was not careful."

I recently combed through and replaced a bunch of imperial measurements with metric to be consistent with my future UK - given the majority of things are measured in metric here now.

I just now realised, though, that I'm still expressing heights in feet and inches ("six three"). Probably because, like bodyweight in stone and pounds, that's what I use myself. I've just looked "six three" up and apparently that's 190cm. I know how long two metres is, I can visualise it, but somehow I can imagine a person six foot three inches tall far more clearly than someone 190 centimetres tall. Odd, because I'd never use feet and inches for other distances.

D. E. Wyatt said:

There's places for this because these measurements are general enough to give you an idea of length, but not so precise as to give the impression your characters are walking around with a tape measure. "The dagger's blade was a span in length and three fingers broad; more than capable of opening his belly if he was not careful."

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Right, but my issue is when they say "The river was a hundred spans wide" (though honestly my issue was more with ells than spans).

Paces. Paces has become my go to for fantasy at least when I don't want to talk about actual measurements.

There are substitutes for a lot of the metric measurements.

Kilometers = klicks So ""Captain, suspicious ships lurking at three hundred eighty five thousand kilometers away!" " = "Captain, suspicious ships lurking at three hundred eighty five thousand klicks!" (If you say 'at' you don't need 'away'.) Military folks know what klicks are, so do a lot of other people.

A yard is about a meter. Once you've used meters enough, the substitution seems normal.

"feet and inches ("six three") = 1.9 meters You just have to get used to it. The readers will as well. Same with centimeters, once you get used to the scale it doesn't sound so weird.

Bujold uses metric in her SF Vorkosigan books.

Stevenson used standard feet/miles, etc in his SF Anathem book because, as he stated in the extensive notes, their measuring system was as old and archaic to them as Standard is to us (even more so!) so when "translating" the author used Standard.

The Lady Trent dragon series by Brennan, which I slot into the Fantasy genre, takes place in an alternate world with a lot of parallels to Victorian England and yet she uses the metric system.

I think it's down to you, not the reader. The reader will deal just fine with whichever you choose. Which fits better with your vision of your book?

Remember what happened to the Mars climate probe when one party used imperial and everyone else used metric?

MaeZe said:

There are substitutes for a lot of the metric measurements.

Kilometers = klicks So ""Captain, suspicious ships lurking at three hundred eighty five thousand kilometers away!" " = "Captain, suspicious ships lurking at three hundred eighty five thousand klicks!" (If you say 'at' you don't need 'away'.) Military folks know what klicks are, so do a lot of other people.

A yard is about a meter. Once you've used meters enough, the substitution seems normal.

"feet and inches ("six three") = 1.9 meters You just have to get used to it. The readers will as well. Same with centimeters, once you get used to the scale it doesn't sound so weird.

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I know klicks. That was what I originally wrote and had to explain to my reading group pals, some were not scfi/military fans and weren't aware of the jargon (one even corrected my 'k' typo.)

The problem is the series of words until I get to the millions or billions. So instead of 'three hundred and eighty five thousand kilometers' I'd have 'one point two-eight seconds,' which I like better.

Bing Z said:

I know klicks. That was what I originally wrote and had to explain to my reading group pals, some were not scfi/military fans and weren't aware of the jargon (one even corrected my 'k' typo.)

The problem is the series of words until I get to the millions or billions. So instead of 'three hundred and eighty five thousand kilometers' I'd have 'one point two-eight seconds,' which I like better.

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I've been paying attention to vocabulary I'm unfamiliar with in books I'm reading. I not only have to chose a measurement system, I have to give a lot of things two names because my two peoples adapted to the same new planet separately. ... sorry, I digress...

Anyway, readers read past names for things they don't recognize and pick the definitions up as they go. The people in one's critique group focus on unfamiliar words.

Pay attention to each one and see if I'm not right.

Kjbartolotta said:

I remember the Expanse series uses metric consistently, despite the fact that it's a series written by Americans featuring Americans. I'd go metric.

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Well, technically, it's implied (at least IIRC) that "America" no longer exists as such; there are references to the North America Free Trade Zone and regions like Montana, but I get the impression that nations as we refer to them aren't a thing, or as much of a thing, with more emphasis on the UN and global leadership.

Helix said:

Remember what happened to the Mars climate probe when one party used imperial and everyone else used metric?

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Yes - a classic example of reality getting away with something that would be thrown out of any publisher's office as "ridiculous" if any of us had tried it in fiction (outside comedy, perhaps.)

Bacchus said:

*We never quite made it; we buy soft drinks in litres and beer by the pint. We sort of buy milk by the litre - the carton in my fridge holds 1.136l... which happens to be 2 pints! We buy sugar by the kilo and fuel by the litre - but our speed limits are in MPH and we measure mileage in MPG. The greengrocer my local market marks his prices up in whatever measurement suits him; something at a £1/lb would never be marked at £2.20/kilo, and similarly something at £5/kilo would never be £2.27/lb

It's no wonder that the rest of the world thinks we're odd.

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Oh, the same thing happened in Canada. We use metric for distances, gasoline, and temperature, but we quote our weight and height in pounds and feet, our house size in square feet, and our pizza size in inches.

It's very weird, since I only ever learned metric in school, but I still couldn't tell you how tall I am in metres.

I absolutely do not understand how soda, of all things in the USA, ended up being sold in one and two liter bottles but every other size container is ounces. 12 oz cans, 20 oz bottles. WTF? All other food and drink is Standard measures. But there sit the one and two liter bottles.

In primary school, secondary school, and at college we were constantly told that within just a few years the USA would switch to metric. I'm in my mid-60's now and it still hasn't happened.

In my SciFi books I use metric... because you know, it's fiction.

Laneer said:

I'm sure this topic has been covered before, but I couldn't find it.

I'm using metric in my SF opera novel. I'm wondering if I should use imperial measurement instead? Feet, yards, miles?

I noticed in the book "Old Man's War" the few times they use measurements it's imperial. But they mention that the protagonist used imperial measurement up until he joined the military.

I don't want to send readers to google to look up what 30 centimeters is equivalent to, but it seems ridiculous for imperial measurement to be standard in the future.

Click to expand...

I plan to use both on my SF world. I currently use imperial in book one but the travels in book two will include to places with metric.

There are too many fantastic (if small) plot points and twists and potential humor that can arise from miscommunications over units.

It's also fun to play with different bases as a means of counting.

Numbers are fun.