Wikipedia:WikiProject South America/Falkland Islands work group/Units
 | This page is currently inactive and is retained for historical reference. Either the page is no longer relevant or consensus on its purpose has become unclear. To revive discussion, seek broader input via a forum such as the village pump. Decided at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:WikiProject South America/Falkland Islands work group/Units that this is not a valid exception to the manual of style, and that WP:UNITS is the applicable part of the manual of style instead. |
Unit preferences for Falklands articles
[edit]Articles on the Falkland Islands should use measures in use locally, which can be assumed to be the same as those in use in the UK. Therefore, unless there is a good reason (as determined by consensus) to use some other unit, the "most appropriate units" to be put first on articles strongly associated with the Falkland Islands should be determined according to the following guidelines:
In general, put metric units first and follow with imperial and US customary units as appropriate. Where this would create significant inconsistency with the exceptions to this rule noted below, put imperial units first and follow with metric and US customary units. Articles should be internally consistent with respect to the units used in a given context.
The following are exceptions to the metric-first rule:
- Distance:
- For geographical distances onshore (including coastlines), use statute miles or yards and follow with kilometres or metres
- For distances offshore, use nautical miles and follow with both kilometres and statute miles
- For distances that contain significant parts both on- and off-shore, use statute miles and follow with both kilometres and nautical miles
- Speed:
- For land speed, use statute miles per hour and follow with kilometres per hour
- For airspeed and speeds offshore, use knots and follow with both kilometres per hour and statute miles per hour
- Fuel economy of land vehicles: if ever needed, use miles per imperial gallon and follow with other units as appropriate
- Personal heights: use feet and inches, and follow with metres
- Personal weights: use stones and pounds, and follow with both kilograms and pounds
- Quantities of beer/cider: use imperial pints and follow with both millilitres and US pints
- In historical contexts, use the units preferred by contemporary sources
- In other contexts where non-metric units are the most commonly used internationally, and where UK usage matches this (such as feet for aircraft altitude).
In contexts where the Manual of Style explicitly prefers one set of units such as to override the general rule that the most appropriate unit is put first (for example for all nominal or defined units), put that unit first.
In any case where the primary units do not match the source units, note this in the citation.