Metric system in Elite

[krylite]

Pilots and air traffic control globally, today, are still stuck with using some of the American/imperial system in flight levels (ft), speed in knots (nautical miles), and distance in miles since the much of the FAA rules were adopted as the global standard.

In Star Trek and the earlier Elite games the metric system was already adopted so it's safe to assume the bubble completely adopted metric by 2800-3300

 

[Garix]

Should of used The Registers alternate standards....

measuring speed as a "Percentage of Maximum Velocity of Sheep in a Vacuum" should be the new SI....

 

[Stigbob]

It is easier in everything! I don't measure in inches when doing home-improvement work anymore as I cannot do the math in my head and no calculator does imperial fractions (It irritates me when I cant find a metric tape measure). Metric is just so easy. What most Americans (yes I am one) don't realize is that they use the metric system every day. Our monetary system is metric and no ones seems to have an issue with that!

It's only habit and change resistance keeping it alive.

I'm such an old fogey I remember being taught imperial currency at school and the teacher losing it one day about going over to metric. He maliciously made us learn his beloved already dead monetary system and caned anyone who ever got it wrong whilst gleefully telling us he would keep teaching it to us until the government who were wrong made him stop.

We used to troll him about it for dares, and be savagely beaten.

He took "early retirement" that's progress for you.

 

[Noob]

 

[Stigbob]

Mrs Stigbob whilst laughing at Noob's picture has just observed that after Brexit we'll probably go back to imperial measurements.

 

[Stupid_hippy]

Thats true...theres exactly 28 grams in an ounce...why I know this is should probably be left unsaid ^

Probably for the same reason that I know a penny is a henry.

 

[Arthur Shappey]

The cubit.......though it would have to be in kilocubits!

Isn't the cubit the ancient measure of a forearm?

 

[Arthur Shappey]

Well the parsec is the IAU approved measurement of very very very long distances, so I guess that makes the more human-friendly "Light Year" the frowned upon unit.

Not sure that really counts though. IAU adopted or no. For starters, the basic calculation of the Parsec involves the radius of the Earth - which is akin to the metre being derived (albeit via an understandable miscalculation) from the diameter of the Earth. Nothing human about that scale.

I do have a soft spot for it, though, thanks to its misuse as a timing in Star Wars (rather than a distance). Perhaps it will turn out to really be a distance in the new "Solo" movie, where the Kessel Run involves warping distance to complete the race faster?

 

[DocPossible]

Not sure that really counts though. IAU adopted or no. For starters, the basic calculation of the Parsec involves the radius of the Earth - which is akin to the metre being derived (albeit via an understandable miscalculation) from the diameter of the Earth. Nothing human about that scale.

I do have a soft spot for it, though, thanks to its misuse as a timing in Star Wars (rather than a distance). Perhaps it will turn out to really be a distance in the new "Solo" movie, where the Kessel Run involves warping distance to complete the race faster?

<Pedant mode on> Radius of the Earth's orbit, but you knew that </Pedant mode off>

 

[Verson Geterix]

Something i thought about well exploring. Why does Elite Dangerous use the metric system wasnt the United States the last surviving superpower at the end of WW3?

Elite is a British made game, not American. Napoleon introduced the metric system to France and it's taken them until just recently (a few decades ago) to convince us to adopt it. The French argument was (then) that since we were joining their (what turned out to be) undemocratic Franco-German self-interest club (AKA the common market - later to be known as the European Union), then we should use their system. We gave in and let them have their way. It was easier to do that than to send the Royal Navy to blow up their ports, which is what we used to do. Also, the Royal Navy likely pointed out that this was not a very polite thing to do. Anyway, much later, we remembered that we had our own club of democratic nations, called the British Commonwealth of Nations, which (with 54 nations) dwarfs the EU, and who all respect each other's democratic rights. So we decided to give Europe the finger (I believe that's the correct terminology), and sail for the future. Although it would be nice to re-adopt all the measurement systems we invented, in light of our new found insistence to disregard anything the French or Germans say moving forward, it has to be said that our Imperial system was a bit... well, crap. And the metric system is much better. Don't tell the French. So we shall likely go on pretending we are only using it because we've had it for a while, and it would be (like last time) too much of an upheaval to change back. But secretly - we like it.

 

[jjaguar]

I do have a soft spot for it, though, thanks to its misuse as a timing in Star Wars (rather than a distance). Perhaps it will turn out to really be a distance in the new "Solo" movie, where the Kessel Run involves warping distance to complete the race faster?

Well, there's the Star Wars Universe explanation, and the real reason.

The in-Universe answer is that (IIRC) all ships travel through hyperspace at the same rate. So, the only way to get somewhere faster is by plotting a shorter route. The Kessel Run was through a dense black hole cluster, and the usual route takes a ship in a big arc around it. Han was able to plot a risky, shorter route that flew through the cluster in about 2/3rds the usual distance. Whether the new movie will stick to that canon, I can't say.

The real reason is that Han is trying to impress Luke and Obi-Wan with obvious bull. The script makes it clear because right after that line was a direction that was something like "Ben rolls his eyes at this obvious stupid lie." He's making stuff up because he thinks they don't know any better.

 

[tanman]

Something i thought about well exploring. Why does Elite Dangerous use the metric system wasnt the United States the last surviving superpower at the end of WW3?

The events of WWIII and Elite Dangerous are separated by Twelve centuries. That is more than enough time to change to metric. Besides, the vast majority of the rebuilding effort was done by corporations, they could have simply found it more convenient to use metric.

 

[Navynuke99]

Well, there's the Star Wars Universe explanation, and the real reason.

The in-Universe answer is that (IIRC) all ships travel through hyperspace at the same rate. So, the only way to get somewhere faster is by plotting a shorter route. The Kessel Run was through a dense black hole cluster, and the usual route takes a ship in a big arc around it. Han was able to plot a risky, shorter route that flew through the cluster in about 2/3rds the usual distance. Whether the new movie will stick to that canon, I can't say.

As it was explained in the (now) Legends novel that explained it, Han was able to plot the shorter route because of the immense power of the Falcon's Class 0.5 hyperdrive (lower numbers are better) to avoid the complex gravitational forces of the Maw cluster.

And The Mouse has already retconned that in Rebels to have something to do with a mobile course or something.

 

[Cosmo]

In the year 2064 China (totally metric) became the dominant power because they don't have a political system that tears itself apart in the USA in 2016. That is why aliens from another planet landed in China in 2048 versus the USA. It was all because of some game called Elite Dangerous exploring the universe and their society was prepared to make first contact. While the game was created in the U.K. most of the developers died long ago of old age while China improved upon it and aliens were watching.

An empire built on tyranny and ruled by an unelected and unaccountable bureaucracy (CCP) doesn't have legitimate support from its people so it won't last long.

In the future, the sole global power on Earth is the Federation. The predecessor is the United States of the Americas and every remaining country joined it. There are no countries anymore on Earth in 3304.

 

[Stealthie]

As it was explained in the (now) Legends novel that explained it, Han was able to plot the shorter route because of the immense power of the Falcon's Class 0.5 hyperdrive (lower numbers are better) to avoid the complex gravitational forces of the Maw cluster.

At the risk of continuing OT, is that all still a thing in the SW universe?

It's just that, in TFA, spaceships seemed to be able to hop all around the galaxy instantaneously.
Didn't seem like there was any kind of acknowledgement that hyperspace travel still takes time at all.

Course, that movie also gave us Starkiller Base, which was apparently capable of firing a laser which could travel to multiple targets at many times the speed of light, too.

All very strange and unconvincing.

 

[Adhock]

I think you need to check that.

"Shadow Cabinet of Australia- (Also known inthe coalition as the Opposition Front Bench) is a group of senior Opposition spokespeople who are regarded as the alternative Cabinet to the Cabinet of Australia, who's members shadow or mark each individual Minister or portfolio of the Government."

If I'm reading this correctly, is essentially people who didn't win the election or were not selected to their position to offer a counterpoint to their counterpart.

The Shadow President of the Federation is the loser of the Federation Presidential election and essentially is there to offer a counterpoint to the current president and acting as the 'Voice of the Opposition' and is acting in the role of the American Vice President. (Though note there is an official Vice President of the Federation)

We see evidence of this as the current President Zachary Hudson was Shadow President to Jasmine Halsey when Elite Dangerous launched. Hudson often commented on Halsey's actions and usually in an opposing view and was critical of them.

While it is like that Australia is not the only country to feature a 'Leader of the Opposition' and 'Shadow Cabinet' it was the first one that came to mind that I'm aware of.

 

[Adhock]

It's just that, in TFA, spaceships seemed to be able to hop all around the galaxy instantaneously.
Didn't seem like there was any kind of acknowledgement that hyperspace travel still takes time at all.

Absolutely. Hyperspace travel does not happen instantaneously. Much like how Elite Dangerous makes us hop from system to system, Star Wars Hyperspace works more akin to a lightspeed tunnel allowing you to bypass all the system between your location and your destination. The further your destination, the longer in hyperspace you stay. Traveling from the core worlds like Courscant all the way to the outer rim where Tatooine is located could see you spending up to two weeks in Hyperspace.

This is how Ben Kenobi was able to teach Luke many of the basics of lightsaber combat in the 'short' amount of time they were aboard the Millennium Falcon. If you listen to the Radio Drama version of New Hope you can hear Ben telling Luke to go through different defensive and attack positions with a time lapse between them showcasing Ben's instruction before the scene with the training drone in the movie we see before they drop in front of the Death Star.

The point of the movie is to keep the audience engaged and watching the characters spend a realistic two weeks doing nothing aboard a ship would not keep their attention for long so the movies cut to the action. The books on the other hand showcase a very different story.

Also there are indeed many different classes of Hyperspace drives. Not all are rated equally. Civilian grade ones rate around 3-4 and can take weeks to months to make certain trips while military grade ones are class 1-2 and allow a ship to make jumps faster. The Falcon is in a class of it's own at .5 which is the fastest known drive and that's because it's indeed heavily home brew modified.

It's like GPS. Civilians have access to the GPS system that gives them a location with a margin of error down to 100 centimeters. The military has additional access to more complex algorithms that give them a margin of error to less then a milimeter.

 

[Shinji Ikari]

An empire built on tyranny and ruled by an unelected and unaccountable bureaucracy (CCP) doesn't have legitimate support from its people so it won't last long.

In the future, the sole global power on Earth is the Federation. The predecessor is the United States of the Americas and every remaining country joined it. There are no countries anymore on Earth in 3304.

They pretty much are now factions.

 

[Sysmon]

In the year 2064 China (totally metric) became the dominant power

Or is it 2048? The Binary Millennium, or also know as the eSingularity, or the Real Y2K Apocalypse.

S

 

[Belan]

In a tragic misunderstanding, the US emergency broadcast gave people instructions to shelter underground at a depth of at least 5m and all the people who mistook that for 5ft died of radiation poisoning.

On the bright side, subsequent studies revealed that, as a result of this unfortunate incident, the average IQ of US citizens had risen by 23 points.

This theory wouldn't jive as most Americans would mistake 5m as 5 miles, so we'd be ok.