• Pipoca@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Imperial basically developed by picking a useful measure at each given scale.

    For example, a mile was originally 1000 paces, and wasn’t standardized at all. The first Roman legion to march down a road would stick mile markers down based on the length of their stride.

    A furlong was one agricultural furrow long - the distance you’d plow with your Ox.

    A foot was originally someone’s literal foot.

    It’s inconsistent for the same reason a meter doesn’t go neatly into a light year. That doesn’t make it good, but it’s a very human system of units.