Forgotten Realms Wiki talk:Units of measurement

I think the units given in the source material should be quoted first, with the conversion listed in parentheses afterwards. When Wizards starts publishing stuff in metric units, then it will switch :D

Moviesign 22:09, March 5, 2012 (UTC)

I see what you are saying, however the main concern is that USA uses imperial measurements, population around 300 million, but practically the rest of the world uses metric, population 6 billion or so. It's clear we need to list both, since "60 yards" or "14 inches" means nothing to me, but "10 centimetres" might be equally useless to an American. I think we should take the utilitarian approach here to list the metric first. Fw190a8 (talk &middot; contr) 22:49, March 5, 2012 (UTC)

Hehe, your argument would hold water if you quoted US-based Forgotten Realms customers vs. non-US customers. But my case is historical, not cultural or even demographical. If you were quoting an ancient medalion that described the Staff of Ra as being six kaddam long, you would write "The relic was six kaddam (about 1.8 meters) long." which still respects the original text and provides a modern interpretation. We are the scribes, cataloguers, and archaeologists of the Forgotten Realms (remember, it is now policy to write as if we are thousands of years in the future) and we should respect our ancient treasures. :) &mdash;&mdash;Moviesign 23:37, March 5, 2012 (UTC)


 * Speaking as an Australian for whom something like a yard means nothing, I really don't mind the US measurements. The D&D game uses those measurements, and the Forgotten Realms is a US-based franchise, with a largely American fan-base (I assume), and I respect that. I use US spelling in my articles, UK spelling otherwise (I'm bilingual!). (Disclaimer: I work as a technical editor who edits scientific papers, usually in US spelling, so I may just be quite used to working this way.)
 * For honesty and accuracy, I believe we should as stay as true to source material as possible, just like with regular lore. If US spelling is used, I'll use US spelling. If a particular type of unit is quoted, I'd use that. A conversion essentially modifies information, so it shouldn't be uses a primary data.
 * Changing the units introduces a problem of reduced accuracy. For example, 5.0 feet ≈ 1.5 metres, but 1.5 metres ≈ 4.9 feet. That 5 feet might already have been rounded, so it would be increasingly inaccurate to call it 1.5 metres, if that makes sense. I'd prefer to give the original, most accurate measurement first, followed by a converted estimate in brackets, just so it's clear which the source uses and which is the estimate.
 * Some points on the proposed guidelines from a scientific standpoint:
 * We shouldn't invent accuracy. A measurement of 5 feet might already have been rounded down from 5.1 feet, so there's no need to choose an exact conversion of 1.524 metres. We should round to the same number of significant figures in each number: e.g., 13 feet has 2 significant figures (1 and 3), so this converts to 3.9 metres, not 3.9624 metres. For a single digit number, such as 5 feet, consider it as 5.0 for two significant figures (5 and 0), to produce a conversion of 1.5 metres instead of 1 metre or 1.524 metres.
 * It's more common to space out abbreviated units, just like you would with the full names: e.g., 5 feet, 5 ft, instead of 5ft. This is mainly to avoid confusion with mathematics in scientific use (e.g., 5cm or 5c m, where c = 2.1,), however, and I can see how doing the same with inches, in, could also be confusing. -- BadCatMan 03:30, March 6, 2012 (UTC)


 * Generally I agree with the mini-consensus above for the reasons stated. If the source gives it a particular way, let's use that unit, and convert in parentheses (brackets). I have changed the proposal to respect this.
 * I have also changed the proposal to reflect the idea that we should retain the same number of significant digits when converting units.
 * However, BadCatMan says "It's more common to space out abbreviated units", but searching Google gives more results for "5ft" than it does for "5 ft". Add to that this BBC news article which does not space out the units, and this Telegraph article which also does not space out the units, and consensus seems to be not to space the units. I am, however, aware that my two links are to British news sites and this might be a convention that holds true only in Britain.
 * Wikipedia's Manual of Style does require a space between the unit and the unit symbol. As we are, in general, following Wikipedia's guidelines unless we have a good reason to do differently, I am inclined to have a space between the unit and the unit symbol, although prepared to discuss further if there are other points of view, of course. Fw190a8 (talk &middot; contr) 20:53, March 11, 2012 (UTC)


 * The updated policy looks great, thanks!
 * Spacing out the units may be more common/relevant in scientific usage (where there is a greater potential of confusion) than in everyday usage, such as in newspapers (that rarely get detailed). Wikipedia has to cover scientific usage as well, hence specifying that rule. I don't think it will be much of a problem in the Forgotten Realms anyway — how much mathematics or detailed measurements can we expect? — but it covers our bases to mention the rule. -- BadCatMan 07:33, March 13, 2012 (UTC)


 * Whitespace between the number and the unit means that the unit may wrap to the next line. This is not confusing if the unit is spelled out but might be if abbreviations are used as the policy recommends. For example, 15 inches makes sense but 15 in might be confused with the word "in". In my opinion, 15in is better, but &amp;nbsp; (the HTML non-breaking space) can be used to prevent line breaks, so I can go either way on this. Anyone else want to weigh in on this? &mdash;Moviesign 02:45, March 25, 2012 (UTC)