Weights and Measures
There are two distinct cultures that occupy modern Yuriba, that of Underhill and that of the immigrants to the island. This article is devoted entirely to the Weights and Measures prevalent among the native residents. For information on measurement systems used by immigrants, please consult another source.
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History
The society of Underhill is mostly based on a barter economy, and the area itself is believed to be thought morphic. As such, exact measurements are not often needed. However, when dealing with the outside world, the residents of Underhill have a unique and formal system of weights and measures. These are derived from measurement systems used by the humans of the Lily Civilization in ancient times, and are based around natural elements found on the island at that time. Though some of the plants and minerals that were used to establish the measurement systems may have changed or even died out over time, the residents of Underhill have formalized and preserved standards for the exact measures.
Weight
Not surprisingly, the standard unit of weight in the Yuriban system is called a Lily Weight(lw). The naming for this was both based off the name of the original civilization of Yuriba, and also because the original standard of measure was 1 lw was the weight of 100 Hotsprings Lily flowers. This flower was chosen, both because of it's prevalence around the many hotsprings of the island, but also because the flowers grew to a surprisingly uniform weight.
The Lily Weight is further divided into the Flower Weight(fw), which is the weight of one Hotsprings Lily Flower (1/100 of a Lily Weight). This would correspond to approximately 5.5 grams in metric and almost 0.2 ounces in the English system of measurement.
After this is the Petal Weight(pw), which is 1/10 of a Flower Weight.
Any smaller units are generally referred to by their fraction of a Petal Weight, but there is also a unit, the Partial Petal Weight(ppw) which is defined to be 1/10 of a Petal Weight. The Partial Petal Weight degree of exactness was difficult for the Lilians to measure in ancient times, so it was not often used. In modern times it is more often used interchangeably with fractional petal weights.
- 1 Lily Weight (lw) = 100 Hotsprings Lily Flowers = 0.55kg = 1.21 pounds
- 1 lw = 100 Flower Weight (fw) = 1,000 Petal Weight (pw)
- 1 lw =10,000 Partial Petal Weight (ppw)
For comparison:
- An average teenage human girl weighs approximately 100 lw.
- One Twenty-Lily Coin weighs approximately 1 fw.
- One Passionberry weighs approximately 1 pw.
Length
Very little information is available about Yuriban measurements of length.
Volume
Very little information is available about Yuriban measurements of volume, though there have been Lilian pottery uncovered that bears signs of marking to indicate volume.