system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How units of time (seconds, minutes, hours, etc) became seemingly universal around the world while other units like weight or distance did not?
gpt
Weights and measures were independently developed all over the world. Timekeeping, on the other hand, with accuracy beyond "mid day" or "late afternoon" only got serious with the advent of precision clocks, almost all of which were developed and spread from Europe during exploration. Since everyone was trying to steal from/copy/improve on clocks for several reasons, not least of which was accurate sailing in the middle of the ocean, timekeeping was sort of easy to standardize on.