If you do a quick Google search, you'll find plenty of resources comparing and contrasting the systems, and there's pros and cons to each, but a lot boils down to divisibility, and ease of practical use. E.g. one foot is - roughly - the length of a foot, is divisible by 2,3, and 4, and is 1/3rd of a yard.
What's easier to calculate in your head: 1/6th of a meter (16.667cm), or 1/6th of a yard (6")? Or what's half of 6 3/4" (3 3/8") or half of 17.15cm (8.575cm)? There's a lot of people smarter than me, but I find it easier to divide 6 by two, and double the denominator, than i to to try and do long-division through 17.15 in my head.
Imperial/US Customary gets lost in unit conversations, but that's kinda because each system was developed to measure things in specific size ranges, and not to be swapped around; small things, medium things, big things. 5280 feet to a mile seems arbitrary, until you think about a mile as 1000 paces - which is perhaps more grounded for many people than a kilometer, which is 1000x one ten-millionth of the way from the equator to the north pole (or more recently, based on 1/299792458 of a second, where the second is defined by a hyperfine transition frequency of caesium. Very scientific, perhaps not very relatable.).
While water boiling at 212F and freezing at 32F might seem weird, it makes a lot more sense when you think about it for weather, where 0F is "pretty f-ing cold", and 100F is "pretty f-ing hot". Most weather on most of the world is between those two extremes most days, whereas the temperature water boils at isn't terribly relatable - its gonna burn your skin off well before it boils.
There's no right or wrong answer, both systems have drawbacks.
May 20, 2025, 4:09 p.m. - Cooper Quinn
If you do a quick Google search, you'll find plenty of resources comparing and contrasting the systems, and there's pros and cons to each, but a lot boils down to divisibility, and ease of practical use. E.g. one foot is - roughly - the length of a foot, is divisible by 2,3, and 4, and is 1/3rd of a yard. What's easier to calculate in your head: 1/6th of a meter (16.667cm), or 1/6th of a yard (6")? Or what's half of 6 3/4" (3 3/8") or half of 17.15cm (8.575cm)? There's a lot of people smarter than me, but I find it easier to divide 6 by two, and double the denominator, than i to to try and do long-division through 17.15 in my head. Imperial/US Customary gets lost in unit conversations, but that's kinda because each system was developed to measure things in specific size ranges, and not to be swapped around; small things, medium things, big things. 5280 feet to a mile seems arbitrary, until you think about a mile as 1000 paces - which is perhaps more grounded for many people than a kilometer, which is 1000x one ten-millionth of the way from the equator to the north pole (or more recently, based on 1/299792458 of a second, where the second is defined by a hyperfine transition frequency of caesium. Very scientific, perhaps not very relatable.). While water boiling at 212F and freezing at 32F might seem weird, it makes a lot more sense when you think about it for weather, where 0F is "pretty f-ing cold", and 100F is "pretty f-ing hot". Most weather on most of the world is between those two extremes most days, whereas the temperature water boils at isn't terribly relatable - its gonna burn your skin off well before it boils. There's no right or wrong answer, both systems have drawbacks.