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water. its all based on water.

1m^3 of water is one liter.

1cm^3 is 0.01liter.

1mm^3 is 0.001liter.

thats how length is used in relation to volume in the metric system. the number that its all based on is 10. we have ten fingers, ten toes. our whole number system is based around ten. the metric system works in tens. imperial is messed up with divisions of 16.

think about it... one tonne metric is 1000kilograms... what is it imperial? 2000 something pounds. like that makes sense. or inches into a yard, or yards in a mile. its 100centimeters in a meter. 1000 meters in a kilometer. too easy.

Further answer

The questioner asks what NUMBER the metric system is based on. Water is not a number. However,. it's one of the things that can be measured by the metric system. And the other things are everything. The number the system is based on is ten.

However, the argument about whether it's better than the imperial system continues. Those who haven't used imperial don't see its advantages.

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12y ago

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