b3300876@rick.cs.ubc.ca (george chow) (05/12/91)
This is not really the right group but I'm not sure where it really belongs... and because there's such a collection of people here, surely someone would have the answer.... ;) How did it came about that we have 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour? What about the situation with degrees (i.e., 60 minutes in a degree, 60 seconds in a minute.) I seem to recall vaguely that it may had to do with the Babylonians. Of course, email will suffice. George
gingell@aurs01.UUCP (Mike Gingell) (05/14/91)
b3300876@rick.cs.ubc.ca (george chow) writes: > How did it came about that we have 60 seconds in a minute and 60 > minutes in an hour? What about the situation with degrees (i.e., 60 > minutes in a, degree,60 seconds in a minute.) I seem to recall > vaguely that it may had to do with the Babylonians. Because 60 is subdivisible by so many exact factors. Which is what makes 100 such a lousy arithmetic base. It would have been much better for mathematics if man had been born with 12 fingers. Mike Gingell, Alcatel, Raleigh, NC USA (919) 850-6444 UUCP: ...!mcnc!aurgate!aurfs1!gingell Internet: gingell%aurfs1%aurgate@mcnc.org
bruceb@informix.com (Bruce Barr) (05/16/91)
In article <59829@aurs01.UUCP> gingell@aurs01.UUCP (Mike Gingell) writes: >Because 60 is subdivisible by so many exact factors. Which is what makes >100 such a lousy arithmetic base. It would have been much better for >mathematics if man had been born with 12 fingers. But man does have 12 counting digits. Ten fingers and two feet. This is the reason many languages have a special word for numbers up to 12 but then start in on some variation of 3 and 10, 4 and 10, etc. BB