Not to mention what the awg is derived from...
Stretch through a number of dies... mmkay...
It also impacts some practicalities. Suppose you want to know a voltage drop/calculate the resistance of a length of cable. You need to calculate the resistance of the cable. The formula for this is:
R = ρ * L / S with:
- Rho (ρ) the resistivity of the material
- L being the length of the conductor
- S being the cross section (area)
So having a 10mm^2 cable, the calculation is easy - you only need Rho for copper or whatever the conductor is made out of.
With AWG, you first still have to go look up what the cross section is (in whatever units, metric or imperial) before you can make the calculation. Never mind that 2 AWG has a cross section of 0.05212 square inch. Definitely not easier than using 32 mm^2, which you also don't need to look up because that's the unit cable is sold at. It has a direct practical application.