Standardized Measuring: The metric system is used in almost every country around the world, with the exception of US and a few others. It is based on decimal multipliers of units which facilitates arithmetics. Rather than having new sets of names, such as yards, miles, etc, the metric system uses prefixes (milli = /1000, , centi = /100, kilo = x1000 , etc) to indicate multiples of 10 within a unit.
As an example, when using the Metric System the unit of Length measurement remains a Meter. To indicate a larger or smaller number than one Meter, then the above mentioned prefixes are used (millimeter, centimeter, kilometer), as oppose to the American measuring system, where the unit of length can be an either an inch, a foot, a yard or a mile with no cohesive relationship between them.