1) Perhaps 60 was a convenient base for the Babylonians because they measured something else in groups of 60. If a season was 60 days, perhaps it made sense for a different symbol to represent that quantity. 60 also has more factors than 10 and perhaps it made it easier to use or more straightforward to represent parts of a whole (60 being the whole).
2) As briefly discussed in class, we use60's 60's
3) Sexagesimal (base 60) numeral systems developed in different cultures. Some possible reasons include: that sixty is a highly composite number with twelve factors. Also, people counted to twelve on their fingers using the thumb to point to each finger bone on the four fingers. The strongest argument is that it was useful for writing and calculating fractions. It is also suggested that there were advantages to merchants and others doing financial transactions when there was bargaining and splitting up bigger quantities.
2) As briefly discussed in class, we use
3) Sexagesimal (base 60) numeral systems developed in different cultures. Some possible reasons include: that sixty is a highly composite number with twelve factors. Also, people counted to twelve on their fingers using the thumb to point to each finger bone on the four fingers. The strongest argument is that it was useful for writing and calculating fractions. It is also suggested that there were advantages to merchants and others doing financial transactions when there was bargaining and splitting up bigger quantities.
Source: Asian, E. Babylonian mathematics. https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72vedxjQkDDP1mXWo6uco/wiki/Sexagesimal.html
Hi Christine, nice mention of the many factors of 60 and relationship to time. I wonder if you might expand on the use with fractions part.
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