> metric, it turns out has no more purity in it's base units than any other system. The base units are still somewhat arbitrary, in that they are based on this

> metric, it turns out has no more purity in it's base units than any other system. The base units are still somewhat arbitrary, in that they are based on this planet: the meter is related to the gradian and the circumference of the Earth. Celsius is based on the freezing and boiling point of water in our atmosphere. Mass is based on a specific volume water. If we were to set up a system now we could base it on fundamental physical constants (e.g planck or atomic units). But then we would have the same problem that the US currently has: endless arguments about how the old system is so much more 'natural' and convenient than the new one. The fact is that the rest of the world has gone metric, and the US will too, eventually. But SI has 2 things that the Imperial and US Customary systems do not have: 1. It is coherent: the base units and the derived units relate to each other simply without arbitrary conversion factors. With Imperial and US units you can't even convert between length, area, and volume without them. 2. It is based on powers of 10. There is only one unit for each quantity, and a single system of common multipliers. > Personally I think an si system set up around base twelve would kick ass If we had 12 fingers and used base 12 in everyday life, then a measurement system based on multiples of 12 would be awesome. Base 12 is much better than base 10. But we don't.