Why minutes in 60 seconds, hours in 60 minutes?
Why 60 seconds is captured by dividing one minute. Or vice versa, why 60 seconds is one minute? Why is an hour taken for 60 minutes?
Even 100 minutes could be an hour. Or minutes in 100 seconds? The short answer is that this method has been around for thousands of years. Historians have identified a number of reasons why the 24 and 60 systems were introduced.
Numerical: - Our 10 based number system has come for the convenience of counting using 10 fingers of the hand. At least 5,000 years ago, Sumerian civilizations used 12- and 60-digit numbers instead of the decimal number system for complex mathematical and geometric calculations.
The limitation of the 10-based method is that 10 cannot be divided by anything other than 2 and 5 only. In that comparison 12K can be divided by 2, 3, 4, 6 and 60K can be divided by all the numbers from 2 to 6. As a result, it was much easier to calculate the work of fractions in these methods.
In addition, the Sumerians and later the Babylonians used the thumb of the hand to calculate the division of the remaining four fingers into three by one, counting up to 12 in one hand. Multiplying the 12 numbers of one hand by 5 fingers of the other hand gives a maximum of 60 in both hands. This can also be an important reason for choosing the number 60 in minutes-seconds.
Geometry and Astronomy: - After the fall of Sumerian civilization in the eighteenth century BC, the Babylonians discovered degrees for measuring angles. At that time they thought that the earth revolved around the sun once in 360 days. That is, if the daily angular rotation is defined as 1 degree, then the full rotation is completed at 360 degrees. Historians think that this is where the idea of a 360 degree circle comes from.
One-sixth of a circle, that is, 60 degrees, forms an actual angle. That is, if we draw six triangles inside the circle at 60 degrees, each triangle becomes equilateral. For this reason, the number 60 has been of special importance in geometry and astronomy ever since.
Between 335 and 324 BC, Alexander the Great conquered vast areas, and Babylonian astronomy spread to Greece and the Indian subcontinent. Then, after the advent of Islam, Muslim scientists and astronomers from Rome and India also adopted the method of measuring time based on 12 and 60. Thus gradually this method spread worldwide.
