Imperial distance units...

[ustk]

This is a question for the US people, or whoever knows the answer of course :)
I'm working on a project that necessitates a distance value and is intended for live sound engineers
I know how to convert meters to yards, but the question is:
Is it ok to write yard with decimals, or should it always be converted to yard/feet/inches?
What is more natural for you guys?

[d.healey]

@ustk said in Meters and Yard units...:

What is more natural for you guys?

I'd force them to use meters :)

I don't think you can use decimal, like 3.5 yards, because .5 of a yard is not a whole number, it's 1.5 feet. Pretty sure you'd use yard/feet/inches/8th of an inch :p

[ustk]

@d-healey That's what I was afraid of because I don't have the space to write such a long string...

[d.healey]

@ustk Can't you abbreviate it, yd, ft, in?

[ustk]

@d-healey probably not, but I'll try with a shoehorn :)

[mypetrobot]

Not sure about in an audio engineering context, but to a layperson in the United States at least, yards are rarely used as a unit outside of American Football. AF is a very popular sport, and yards are displayed with decimal points frequently when talking about statistics related to the sport. I'd say that your average person in this country wouldn't think it was strange to see yards represented with a decimal point, but generally we are used to seeing feet + inches, or feet paired with a fraction.

For example:
0.5 yards represented as 1 ft. 6" or 1 1/2 ft.

[ustk]

@mypetrobot Thanks! that is interesting :)

[mypetrobot]

@ustk Sure thing!

Anecdotally, all multimedia gear, audio cables, etc. are sold by the foot in this country. So that's likely the unit that your end user is expecting. The only thing we buy by the yard is fabric, haha.

Edit: Feet with a decimal point is likely the best option here until you're to measurements that are less than 1 foot. Sub-foot measurements should be in inches with a decimal point. Not ideal considering how all of our measurement devices are marked, but your average consumer would know how to navigate this. Ideally in sub-foot measurements, you round your inches to the nearest 1/16" unless that level of inaccuracy breaks functionality.