You mentioned nautical miles. Originally, the nautical mile was defined as 1/60th of a degree of longitude (aka one minute) along the surface of the sea, and so

You mentioned nautical miles. Originally, the nautical mile was defined as 1/60th of a degree of longitude (aka one minute) along the surface of the sea, and so it is a pretty natural unit from a navigational standpoint. It has since been redefined based on that original definition, as 1852 meters. So it’s a goofy measure in that it uses base-60, but is otherwise more in the SI family both in terms of original derivation from natural measurements and in terms of its current SI-based definition. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautical_mile https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautical_mile There are other things out there called a “mile” that aren’t imperial, too. Take care when asking for directions in the Norwegian countryside, for example: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandinavian_mile https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandinavian_mile