Weights & Measurements
Shealladh, 26 Sep 2016, 04:21 AM
A debate came up amongst a few of us about the Canon Weights & Measurements.
Is there an official document or place to find these?
For example, how many feet to a mile, does it follow realworld, or some historic measure?
ie;
Hârndex mentions Linear measures;
12 inches = 1 Foot, 3 Feet = 1 Yard, 4,400 Yards = 1 League.
In the Venârivè module;
12 inches = 1 foot, 3 feet = 1 yard, 220 yards = furlong, 20 furlongs = 1 league.
Given 1 league = 1 approximately 4km / 2.5 miles
That said, if one Venârian league is equivalent to approximately 4 km or approximately 2.48 miles.
The approximately part is the debate here.
Measures
Hi
I've always assumed that one Hârnic foot = one imperial (or US customary) foot = 0.3048m (metre). Venârivè (and Hârndex) are simply using historic measurements based on the: foot (foot); stride or pace (yard); length of a furrow [this is the distance a team of oxen can plough without resting] (furlong).
Although the league is an ancient measurement, it was usually about 3 miles, or one hour's walk. Making one Hârnic league = 4400 yards was a clever move (I suspect it was Robin's idea) as by this definition:
1 Hârnic league = 2.5 miles (exactly) = 4023.36m (exactly)
Rounding 4023.36m down to 4000m gives an error of 0.58%, which would be useless if you were trying to put a satellite in orbit, but for a group of characters walking or riding over two watches, it's good enough.