53
Why do we use base 60 for time and base 10 for everything else. Why has no one decided to integrate it. (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by atrax@lemmy.world to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
37 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Thought of this in the shower this morning, if anyone has an answer I'd be very interested!

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] csolisr@communities.azkware.net 5 points 1 year ago

Fun fact: base 60 was adopted by the Babylonians for two major reasons:

  • It splits evenly in common fractions, such as halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, sixths...
  • The Babylonians used a finger-counting method where the left thumb scrolled across each phalanx of the finger (giving a core base 12) and each of the other left fingers was used to keep track of how many rounds of twelve had been counted (hence 12 times 5 = 60)
this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2023
53 points (94.9% liked)

Showerthoughts

29237 readers
820 users here now

A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

Rules

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
vatlark@lemmy.world
forkball@lemmy.world
quinten@lemmy.world
Thekingoflorda@lemmy.world