Federalist system of units
The Federalist system of units (Kiravic: Vundiārkix kènetlentun), also known as Kiravian national units, Kiravian units or (less accurately) Kiravian customary units or Coscivian units, is the official system of measurements defined by the Kiravian federal government. Most units in the system are standardised versions of Coscivian customary units and/or calculated from certain physical constants. It is the most common system of measures used throughout Kiravia for industry, commerce, transportation, and everyday life, though many regional, local, nonstandard customary, Celtic, and indigenous units remain in parallel use, especially for informal purposes.
The latest revision to the Federalist system was effected by the Weights & Measures Act 21201, which added some obscure units with scientific and technical applications to the system. The Bureau of Weights & Measures, headquartered in the Kartika Tholos, is the agency responsible for enforcing use of Federalist units where required by law, investigating fraudulent measurements, and conserving unit prototypes.
History and Formulation
Federalist units are so named because they were first defined by the government of the Kiravian Federation, which replaced its predecessor, the Confederate Republics of Kiravia, in 20783. The new federal constitution explicitly authorised the federal government to define and enforce standards of weight and measurement for international, interstate, and indigenous commerce. During the preceding Confederal Period, many different units of measure were used across Kiravia. Some states had promulgated official systems of units, which often differed from one another in many points of detail. Certain de facto standards set by prominent merchant houses and banks had emerged organically, and many foreign units were used for trade in Kiravia's major ports. The Confederal government had been empowered to regulate interstate and international commerce, and to levy certain classes of taxes, and had defined a number of units for these purposes by statute. However, in an environment of competition with so many different and overlapping measurements systems, many of which featured units with identical names but different values, there was much confusion that created problems for compliance and hindered the growth of trade.
Usage
Although the federal government does not prohibit the use of other systems of measurement, the use of Federalist units for taxation and for commercial and industrial regulations have caused it to be adopted for most purposes in most of the country, as well as by Coscivian minority communities abroad for certain uses. Many states continue to maintain other measurement standards used in parallel with the Federalist system, which can be particularly important in the fields of real estate, agriculture, and mineral exploration, as property law and agricultural policy are the domain of state governments.
Kiravian law requires that labelling on consumer products imported from abroad or sold across state lines be displayed in Federalist units. Similar provisions exist for many classes of industrial factors and physical capital.
A study conducted by the Middle Kiravian Conference of Public Universities to help inform its Examinations Board consider potential changes to the University Aptitude Exam (UAE) found that 88% of native-born, non-Urom, non-Southern (see below) Kiravian adults were proficient in the use of Federalist units of length, mass, and volume for everyday applications and capable of performing basic calculations in those units. The figure for secondary school graduates was 92%, and 97% for those with at least two years of higher education and 100% for university graduates. Proficiency was highest in Niyaska and Harma at 100% and lowest in Potatostan at 74%.* In contrast, only 45% of the general sample showed comparable proficiency in metric units, though this figure was higher for higher education graduates at 53% and highest for those with degrees in natural sciences at 96%. Fariva had the highest metric proficiency (69%) and Xrasnovar Territory the lowest (11%).
*Data from Kyllera was collected, but discarded as a statistical outlier at 55% Federalist proficiency and 0% metric proficiency
South Kirav
In the states of South Kirav - Andrēdan, Issyria, Korlēdan, Trinatria, and Xula - there was widespread opposition to the Federalist system at the time of its establishment. These states had, for the most part, already codified their own official systems of measure, and rallied against what was seen as another Northern imposition. In [YEAR], the Southern states harmonised their official measures under the Southern Weights & Measures Compact, and continued to exclusively use Southern units for domestic purposes until the 21110s-20s, when Korlēdan embarked on a process of gradual adoption of the Federalist system and Xula began permitting the use of both systems in parallel. Over the years, some Southern governors have made efforts to ban or restrict the use of Federalist units in their states and defy Federal requirements for the use of Federalist units (e.g. in aviation), however these policies have inevitably proven both practically untenable and constitutionally impermissible, as have similar efforts to require Southern units on consumer products. Nonetheless, use of Southern units in everyday life and (where applicable) for official business remains vigorous from eastern Korlēdan to Trinatria, especially in rural areas, where many people have limited familiarity with Federalist units. In Xula, there is a strong urban-rural divide with regard to measurement, with Southern units used only informally in the cities but predominating in the countryside.
Similarly, the five core states of South Kirav did not join the rest of Kiravia in adopting the Reformed Coscivian Calendar with its intercalary month, and thus has been falling behind the Reformed Coscivian Calendar by one month every three years for 606 year, resulting in an official date that is currently some 50 years behind the rest of the country.
Units
Linear distance
| Unit | Metric value | Original basis | Mathematical definition | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kènet | X meters | Something | Something | -- |
| Tamago sandō | X meters | Some ancient Emperor | Something | -- |
Volume
| Unit | Metric value | Original basis | Mathematical definition | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shite | X litres | idk | Something | -- |
| Shiznit | Y litres | unknown | Something | -- |
Area
| Unit | Metric value | Original basis | Mathematical definition | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kektare | X m² | Minimum taxable unit of agricultural land (Second Empire) | Something | -- |
| Shiznatch | Y m² | Area of pasture capable of supporting 20 tinav | Something | -- |