60 - Numberphile
The ancient Babylonians used a number system with base 60 (sexagesimal). More links & stuff in full description below ↓↓↓ Tablet image courtesy of Bill ...
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THOMAS WOOLLEY: So the number we're talking about now is 60. Now, it's quite a big number, so you may not meet it all the time. But you do use it a lot when telling the time, which, of course, there are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour. But why 60? Why this random number 60? Well, it all goes back to the Babylonians. Thank you, Babylonians. Because what they wanted back then was a very nice number that divides quite easily. So if you think about the number 60, what divides it cleanly? 1, of course, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. And in fact, it's the smallest number that's divisible by all of these. But why is this important? Because you can take half of it. You can take a quarter of it. You can take a fifth of it. You can take a third of it. You can divide...
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THOMAS WOOLLEY: So the number we're talking about now is 60. Now, it's quite a big number, so you may not meet it all the time. But you do use it a lot when telling the time, which, of course, there are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour. But why 60? Why this random number 60? Well, it all goes back to the Babylonians. Thank you, Babylonians. Because what they wanted back then was a very nice number that divides quite easily. So if you think about the number 60, what divides it cleanly? 1, of course, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. And in fact, it's the smallest number that's divisible by all of these. But why is this important? Because you can take half of it. You can take a quarter of it. You can take a fifth of it. You can take a third of it. You can divide...
