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be0wulfe t1_ja5och7 wrote

Reply to comment by Devil-sAdvocate in 4,500-year-old Sumerian temple dedicated to mighty thunder god discovered in Iraq. by Rifletree

Base 60!?

I gotta read up more on this... Why base 60?

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HermanCainsGhost t1_ja5qxjz wrote

Because 60 has a LOT of factors that can go into it.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15... etc

It's the reason why there are 60 minutes in an hour (and ultimately why there are 60 seconds in a minute, though that's a later development). It's also ultimately why we have 24 hours in a day (they had 12 for daylight hours, which ALSO has a lot of factors, it was eventually doubled).

A lot of time keeping stuff is due to them

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AppleDane t1_ja7twnl wrote

The 12 hour clock was more due to having 1 hour of dawn and 1 hour of twilight. Night wasn't counted as "time", so they had 10 hours of effective time.

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dreadcain t1_ja8e9n2 wrote

Source?

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AppleDane t1_ja8g2mo wrote

I have to give up on finding any. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I remember this from either a documentary on TV or some article I read.

Everyone points to the babylonian number system, so I'm doubting myself too. Maybe I misremember this, or it was a later invention.

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Devil-sAdvocate t1_ja5zdba wrote

Likely finger counting. The base 60 system likely originated from ancient peoples using the digits on one hand to count.

With the left hand, the left thumb counts up to 3 knuckles on each finger for a total of 12. Then with the right hand, the right thumb counts each additional finger as +12. Five multiplied by 12 equals 60.

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False798 t1_ja60yxd wrote

what

Am I going to learn about expanded edition finger counting on reddit

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2Twospark t1_ja6v31v wrote

That's how I first learnt about it.

Use your thumb to point/count your other joints in the fingers (including the base) and you can count to 12 on one hand. If you do the same with your other hand you're able to count up to 144 with just two hands.

:O

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bestoboy t1_ja7estu wrote

how do you get to 144? Isn't it 60 on each hand?

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firala t1_ja7qh4d wrote

12*12 == 144

I assume you multiply the two hand values when you are using two.

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neokraken17 t1_ja7epn0 wrote

Counting 12-15 per hand was how I grew up learning, I thought this was the way everyone did it?

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False798 t1_ja867it wrote

My education experience in the US was only 5 for each hand - I resent not learning about this for so long because I definitely could've used it countless times.

Time to build muscle memory...

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