- July 30, 2021
- Watch Gonzo
- 0
60 seconds make a minute; 60 minutes an hour. But ever wondered, why? And, since when? Let’s take a break from watches and go back in time.
That a minute and an hour have 60 divisions to each is a concept that originated sometime in the 1600s, but it was a giant leap that marked the advent of modern science.
Prior to that, through the millennia, the ancient ones relied upon the sky for measuring time; although, they were the bigger units. For example, a year, a month, a week or a day – all these were calculated with the help of the motions of the Sun and the moon.
Problems started when man wanted to split the day further! Dividing a day was not as straightforward as dividing a week, though earlier we have witnessed hours and minutes being calculated traditionally but not as efficiently as later. However, before proceeding further, let’s have a look at the number systems.
The Sumerians were the first to use 60 divisions in minutes and hours. While the world wrote (and still writes) numbers using decimal (10) system as the base, Sumerians used duodecimal (12) and sexigesimal (60). Why they used it is not known exactly, but there are a couple of theories:
- Many ancient cultures used three segments of each finger to count to 12 on each hand (3-6-9-12), writes Georges Ifrah in his book. According to him – “…the use of 60 arose from using five fingers of one hand with the twelve segments of the other.”
- The Sumerians didn’t have any ambition for repeating-digit fractions (e.g. 1/3 = 0.333…) and few of their fractions had repeating decimals when presented in the sexagesimal number system (An Introduction to the History of Algebra; Jacques Sesiano, American Mathematical Society, 2009).
- It signifies the number of lunar cycles in a year.
- The number of constellations of the Zodiac system.
- Day and night were divided into 12 divisions each; this is how the duration of an entire day was fixed at 24 hours.
- The radius of a circle maps onto a circumscribed hexagon of six equilateral triangles.
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