Once interstellar species began to trade with one another, standards of measurement had to be agreed upon. The Standards Convention of Gom met for the equivalent of thirty-two Earth years to decide and agree on these issues. Humans were not part of the convention as they had not yet ventured beyond their own solar system.
Number system
Base 10
When the Standards Convention met, nine species were in attendance. From these, twelve different base numbering systems were in use (two species used more than one depending on context). A tie vote resulted between base-10 and base-12 systems, which was not acceptable. As only one species used base-10, and two species used base-12, it was decided that in the interests of mitigating any appearance of power influence, base-10 was chosen as being the system which would be the more equally inconvenient to all.
