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logical
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2023
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Strange Planet by Nathan W. Pyle
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Sumerians picked base 60, which is the minimum common multiple of "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6", which is far superior to either 10 (MCM of only "1, 2, 5"), or 12 (MCM of "1, 2, 3, 4").
But the average people had trouble counting to 60, so they used their fingers... which happen to be 10, which happens to be 1/6 of 60... and they called it "good enough".
We still use base 60 for minutes and seconds, base 6*60 (360) for angular degrees, and base 2*12 (24) for hours... which is at least something.
Base 60 isn't superior or even reasonable for human mathematical operations. It's not like 5 is as important of a number as 6. If we all had 6 fingers, 5 would be treated in the same way that 7 is.
Base 60 is both superior and reasonable: it's easily divisible by the first 6 integers. There is a reason we still use it all the time (pun intended).
Base 420 would be the next one, if human brains didn't struggle with holding 7 separate items at once in short term operative memory.
420 lol !trees@somewhere.lemmy