I was very surprised to learn that the Babylonians used a base 60 system. It seems so much more difficult after having gone my whole life using a system with a base 10. My presumption is that the number 60 had some other kind of significance in their society, perhaps related to the stars. I’m not sure if they had a formal time system, with 60 seconds and 60 minutes, as that would be the other reason I’d think the number 60 was used. My understanding, at least currently, is at that time ancient civilizations did have a rudimentary understanding of calendars and had calendar systems - perhaps it could be linked to this as well?
After doing some research, it makes sense why they used 60. An ancient method for counting was to use each bone in our index fingers, which counts to 12 on a single hand. Using 5 hands gets to 60. Using 60 has another benefit - it has 12 factors, meaning that you can break 60 down into many whole numbers. Now that I’ve researched this, it makes so much more sense to me. Growing up, I was always confused as my parents and grandparents would often count using the bones of their fingers – this method originated thousands of years ago and is still used in my house!
This is interesting. Don't forget to comment on how we use base 60 today.
ReplyDelete