Systems of Measurement
There are many different units of measurement in the world, but there are four standards in common usage. The Council of Trademeet are attempting to define a set of standard units, but their efforts have been met with resistance from the various academic factions and crafters' guilds.
The most widespread system of measurement is that used by the drakekin, although the elven units are a close second. The AVA continue to insist on their own units, however, and the Epicentran guild of builders and plumbers tend to switch depending on what they are measuring.
Drakekin measures are based around palms and minas. A palm is a unit of length roughly equal to the width of a mont!aar's hand and was standardised prior to beginning the seastride. It's equivalent to seven and a half AVA inches. The mina is a unit of mass. One mina is the mass of a 1/19th cube of invar.
The elves system of measurements have a history that stretches back thousands of years, to their original homeworld of Coe. They are derived from measurable physical units on Coe, with the metre being the base unit of length, defined as one ten-millionth of the length of a planetary quadrant. The Kilo is the mass of one litre of water. Further measurements are derived in multiples and fractions of ten.
During the long sojourn, however, a new unit of distance came into common usage, being the tile. A tile is 1.524 metres long, and is derived from the size of one removable floor panel in the Wanderer's corridors. The size of a panel was based on the amount of space a deep elven worker would need to move around and perform maintenance tasks freely.
The AVA prefer their system of feet and grains. Feet are based on the length between an woman's elbow and ring finger when laid flat against a surface, Specifically, the woman that Cheung and Morei were vying for the attentions of when they founded the AVA. Feet are divided into inches. Grains are based on the mass of a grain of wheat, with 480 grains being an ounce, and sixteen ounces being a pound.
The most widespread system of measurement is that used by the drakekin, although the elven units are a close second. The AVA continue to insist on their own units, however, and the Epicentran guild of builders and plumbers tend to switch depending on what they are measuring.
Drakekin measures are based around palms and minas. A palm is a unit of length roughly equal to the width of a mont!aar's hand and was standardised prior to beginning the seastride. It's equivalent to seven and a half AVA inches. The mina is a unit of mass. One mina is the mass of a 1/19th cube of invar.
The elves system of measurements have a history that stretches back thousands of years, to their original homeworld of Coe. They are derived from measurable physical units on Coe, with the metre being the base unit of length, defined as one ten-millionth of the length of a planetary quadrant. The Kilo is the mass of one litre of water. Further measurements are derived in multiples and fractions of ten.
During the long sojourn, however, a new unit of distance came into common usage, being the tile. A tile is 1.524 metres long, and is derived from the size of one removable floor panel in the Wanderer's corridors. The size of a panel was based on the amount of space a deep elven worker would need to move around and perform maintenance tasks freely.
The AVA prefer their system of feet and grains. Feet are based on the length between an woman's elbow and ring finger when laid flat against a surface, Specifically, the woman that Cheung and Morei were vying for the attentions of when they founded the AVA. Feet are divided into inches. Grains are based on the mass of a grain of wheat, with 480 grains being an ounce, and sixteen ounces being a pound.
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