Hm... "Nature has no standard of measure." But the metric system is based off the wavelength of light emitted by krypton atoms so that part of the statement isn't quite true though, we can't perceive it with our own senses so it that regard it is true.
Bill Stickers is innocent! It isn't Bill's fault that he was hanging out in the wrong place.
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The meter was orginally defined as one ten-millionth the distance from pole to pole. A completely arbitrary number based on one planet's diameter and a number system influenced by the fact that we happen to have 10 convenient counting digits. Plus it keeps changing. http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/meter.html has information on the history of the meter. Anyhow, my point was that the meter is based on arbitrary decisions based on one subgroup of a random species on a random planet in a random star system in a random galaxy. Not what I would pick for a natural standard of measurement.Originally Posted by RPMiller
Hm... "Nature has no standard of measure." But the metric system is based off the wavelength of light emitted by krypton atoms so that part of the statement isn't quite true though, we can't perceive it with our own senses so it that regard it is true.
The closest thing that seems to be a "natural" measure of distance is the Planck length ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck_length ), which is derived from some of the fundamental constants of our universe. It's not a terribly convenient distance for normal use, though.
I think perhaps that I should get more sleep so that I'll be in a better humor.
See, now your just being nit picky...
Bill Stickers is innocent! It isn't Bill's fault that he was hanging out in the wrong place.
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600 Miles
600 Miles
(I posted this to the world building section but it applies equally here. When we throw around numbers it helps to have mental images to pin them on.)
Washington DC to New York City is, according to google, 229 miles by highway. As the crow flies it might be roughly 200 miles. 1/3rd of 600 mls
Washington to Quebec City is likely about 600 miles as the crow flies.
London England to Berlin Germany is 684 miles by highway - 583 miles as the crow flies.
The isle of Britain is less than 600 miles nth-sth (548 ml. by my inaccurate google earthing.)
600 by 600 miles - 360,000 sq ml.
The land area of Germany is only 216,998 miles.
The land area of Britain (Scotland, England, Nth Ireland) is 152,112 miles
Or... slightly smaller than texas
Larger even than Texas, actually. TX is 262,000 sq miles.
But much smaller than Alaska, which is 572,000 sq miles.
For my own reference, I was looking at the "Four Corners" states: Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona when I was working out my topography. I neglected to go back there before I did my settlements. Even so, considering the number of ruined cities I placed in Tawaren, I think my pre-plague population level would be about right, and a map of this scale wouldn't necessarily show smaller populations unless they were significant in some other way.
Bryan Ray, visual effects artist
http://www.bryanray.name
True... I was estimating the distance up and down ... roughly 700 x 500 miles... sq distances that aren't in a neat box cause me anguish. Whenever I'm mapping out areas like these, I always keep a point of reference that I understand. This is almost always done by figuring distance between cities in the U.S. Since I spent four years driving a truck over the road, I've been to every one of the continental US states save for North Dakota. So for the 600 x 600 miles I equate the distance across as being a trip from El Paso to Dallas. Since I've driven that before (more than several times) I can then put down towns and cities and other features with some confidence.
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