About:Measurements

Introduction

When you are writing a measurement, be it relating to distance, size, temperature, volume, or weight, the rule of thumb is to use the local method of measurement. For example, in articles about the United States, use Fahrenheit. And when in Rome, write it as the Romans would. No, not like the ancient Romans, who would use Roman numerals. Like the modern Romans who use numbers and Celsius.

The rest of this article hopes to clarify how measurements should be formatted in the guide for consistency.

Temperatures

For temperatures try to consistently use the degree character (º) followed by either an F or C for Fahrenheit or Celsius. Have a look at the following example: 28 °C. Notice how it's underlined? Try scrolling over it with your mouse. As you scroll over it, it should show the conversion into Fahrenheit, right there for all you Americans. Clever huh? To get your measurements to look like this, all you have to do is write the number, followed by the degree sign (º) and the letter denoting which measurement method you are using (Fahrenheit or Celsius). Easy peasy.

Numbers

Decimal Points and Commas

When it comes to writing numbers, we adopt the English standard, which is to use commas as the thousands separator (ie. 3,000,000 = 3 million) and decimal points to split the integral and the fractional parts of a decimal (ie. $3.40 = three dollars and forty cents).