Why 60?
- Spencer Morgenweck
- Jul 27, 2024
- 2 min read
The Significance of the Number 60
Before you say, "Well duh, there's 60 seconds in a minute", let me tell you why.
Dawn
First off, just because (most) people have 10 fingers does not give 10 some kind of cosmic significance. Base 10 which uses digits 1-9 is, and was, not the only system ever used. Mayans, Babylonians, and Egyptians would use the base 20, 60 and 12 systems respectively. But this article isn't about the Mayans or the Babylonians (At least for the most part) but about 60.
Babylon (The city) was where the first base 60 system evolved and lived its infancy (It is still much of a mystery, how the system developed), but it would only be with the rapid growth of the Babylonian empire would it spared, with Babylon being a major hub of commerce and center of learning in the ancient world, the system was allowed to spread throughout Mesopotamia, stretching as far as the Levant to the west and the Zagros to the east.
Across Eras
Throughout the Classical and Hellenistic Eras the Greek speaking world would make heavy use of the sexagesimal system. In Plato's "Republic" and Ptolemy's "Almagest" base 60 systems are used throughout.
In Islamic world the sexagesimal system would make its claim to fame, it's use measuring time, with an hour divided into 60 minutes and a minute into 60 seconds. Lesser known is its use in astronomy, with the sky divided into 360 degrees, each degree into 60 minutes, and each minute into 60 seconds. The Islamic mathematician Al-Khwarizmi also used the number 60 in his work on algebra, and his book "Al-Jabr" (Al-Jabr -> Al-Gebr -> Algebr -> Algebra, notice anything?)
In medieval Europe, the system continued to be used in various fields, including timekeeping, astronomy, and mathematics (Mostly copied from Islamic practices). The sexagesimal system would continue in Europe as it had in the Islamic World, mainly being used for Astronomy and timekeeping)
Modern Usage
In the modern era, the number 60 continues to be used in various fields, including timekeeping, mathematics, and computing. The sexagesimal system is still used for measuring time, with an hour divided into 60 minutes and a minute into 60 seconds. The number 60 is also used in computing, with a byte consisting of 8 bits, each of which can have 2 possible values (0 or 1), resulting in a total of 2^8 = 256 possible value. So yeah, 60 is pretty damn important.
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