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- Thread starter kirai
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Dreamer
CupofJoe
Myth Weaver
Comparative to other things, springs to mind...
She had to stoop to get through the door...
He rose to his full height and looked me squarely in the nipple...
The solid boards of the oak floor groaned with Askok's every step....
I avoid direct measurements unless I absolutely have to... I don't need to know that Pilly the Ranger is 1.90 m tall, just that they are tall and how unusual that is compared to others. It's not that the Fort is 24 miles away that is important, but that it will take 2 days for help to get here from there...
But if you want to have another measure, I've seen these pages...
Glossary of Ancient and Traditional Weights and Measures - and Money - Hemyock Castle
History of measurement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Imperial units - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Weights and Measures
Measurement in the Middle Ages
I know others have their own sites as reference/inspiration.
She had to stoop to get through the door...
He rose to his full height and looked me squarely in the nipple...
The solid boards of the oak floor groaned with Askok's every step....
I avoid direct measurements unless I absolutely have to... I don't need to know that Pilly the Ranger is 1.90 m tall, just that they are tall and how unusual that is compared to others. It's not that the Fort is 24 miles away that is important, but that it will take 2 days for help to get here from there...
But if you want to have another measure, I've seen these pages...
Glossary of Ancient and Traditional Weights and Measures - and Money - Hemyock Castle
History of measurement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Imperial units - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Weights and Measures
Measurement in the Middle Ages
I know others have their own sites as reference/inspiration.
chrispenycate
Sage
When I'm in FFF mode (furlong fortnight farenheit) I regularly measure in thumbs, cubits (length of the forearm, about eighteen inches) and spans (width of the hand). Not, I suppose often used for height, we have leagues (roughly three miles, and the mile itself is a thousand paces of Roman infantry) A yard is the distance from the end of your nose to your hand; you can see cloth merchants measuring their wares (
wears?) pulling off from the roll and stretching. A rod is a quarter of a furlong (or stadium), five and a half yards, which is in turn an eighth of a mile, all very binary 'cept that the 'getting them to fit' came later, the original measures being entirely practical (and pleasingly imprecise). Down the bottom end we get measures like the barleycorn, but how many barleycorns to the span I can't offhand tell you.
The hundredweight, eight stone or a hundred and twelve pounds is almost exactly fifty kilos, so an Imperial ton is close enough for rock and roll to a metric tonne (the American ton is smaller. Down at the bottom of the weight scale pennyweights, ounces and grains depend on your profession; an apothecary, a goldsmith or a jeweller would have very different ideas of what an ounce means, and recipes mutate from region to region as 'five drops of', 'a cupful', 'a pinch of', 'a tablespoon of' all mutate to local standards. If you can refer to anything that flexible as a 'standard'.
Volume measures, like hogshead and tunn (which surely must be related to ton, no?) even I look up.
So different professions use each one its own set of measures, and later a trading association comes along and tries to tie them all together or (in the French revolution) replace them all with something 'modern' and scientific. But the old measures hang on in the countryside, where six spans still equal an ell in weaving, or you buy a livre du pain nowadays.
wears?) pulling off from the roll and stretching. A rod is a quarter of a furlong (or stadium), five and a half yards, which is in turn an eighth of a mile, all very binary 'cept that the 'getting them to fit' came later, the original measures being entirely practical (and pleasingly imprecise). Down the bottom end we get measures like the barleycorn, but how many barleycorns to the span I can't offhand tell you.The hundredweight, eight stone or a hundred and twelve pounds is almost exactly fifty kilos, so an Imperial ton is close enough for rock and roll to a metric tonne (the American ton is smaller. Down at the bottom of the weight scale pennyweights, ounces and grains depend on your profession; an apothecary, a goldsmith or a jeweller would have very different ideas of what an ounce means, and recipes mutate from region to region as 'five drops of', 'a cupful', 'a pinch of', 'a tablespoon of' all mutate to local standards. If you can refer to anything that flexible as a 'standard'.
Volume measures, like hogshead and tunn (which surely must be related to ton, no?) even I look up.
So different professions use each one its own set of measures, and later a trading association comes along and tries to tie them all together or (in the French revolution) replace them all with something 'modern' and scientific. But the old measures hang on in the countryside, where six spans still equal an ell in weaving, or you buy a livre du pain nowadays.
Ah, the FFF system. Why, I was driving through Manchester at the breakneck speed of 80,000 furlongs per fortnight this morning... or 30mph.
But as CupofJoe says, you don't need actual measurements to indicate height or weight, you can show them by how the characters interact with the environment, how they compare to other characters, and how their dimensions affect their attitude, outlook or approach to obstacles. For example, if your characters need disguises, maybe the uniforms they've managed to nick from the laundry place fit most of the group but for one character, the sleeves come past his hands and need pulling up, and the jacket, that is meant to be secured around his waist, goes down almost to his knees. We get the impression he's a bit of a small person. Or maybe another character can't fasten the second-to-the-top button across her chest and slaps a male character on the back of the head for perving on her while she tries to: she's got a bigger chest than the uniforms are designed to accommodate. You don't need to say that Bob is 5'2" and thin, or that Anna is a 36DD. The reader can work it out from the context, and you've shown them rather than telling them, and it's more interesting to read than numbers.
But as CupofJoe says, you don't need actual measurements to indicate height or weight, you can show them by how the characters interact with the environment, how they compare to other characters, and how their dimensions affect their attitude, outlook or approach to obstacles. For example, if your characters need disguises, maybe the uniforms they've managed to nick from the laundry place fit most of the group but for one character, the sleeves come past his hands and need pulling up, and the jacket, that is meant to be secured around his waist, goes down almost to his knees. We get the impression he's a bit of a small person. Or maybe another character can't fasten the second-to-the-top button across her chest and slaps a male character on the back of the head for perving on her while she tries to: she's got a bigger chest than the uniforms are designed to accommodate. You don't need to say that Bob is 5'2" and thin, or that Anna is a 36DD. The reader can work it out from the context, and you've shown them rather than telling them, and it's more interesting to read than numbers.
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