They use a distance called the parsec (a contraction of parallax and second), based on a universal measure called the stellar parallax and equivalent to 3.26 light-years.
Fathom is a unit of distance about six feet that originated from the old English fathom, which could mean to embrace or outstretched arms, hence six feet.
You scoff, remembering that a parsec is a unit of distance, not time, when suddenly your ship powers down and a boarding party is beating down the outside hatch.
Yeah, Coulomb's law gives the electrostatic force as the Coulomb constant times charge 1 times charge 2 all divided by the square of the distance between centers of charge all times unit vector r.
Since each window represents the same unit of time, it follows that four units of time are equal to eight units of time or that four units of distance equal eight units of distance, which is absurd.
There are just more tick marks to cover per unit distance Also, a nice side effect of the term real estate is that it aligns naturally with the fact that it comes in units of distance squared.