Probably not worth the effort, just random thoughts before I'm fully caffeinated
Time is interesting. We use a base 60 system with base 10 numerals to reference points in time. Why? I mean I know it is ancient, but that angles (0-360) are about the only places where this is used, and we don't even really acknowledge it's base 60. Is there no accurate base 10 way of measuring angles? I mean we have fractions which kind of get us where we need to be. We use this when referencing time. "It's quarter after 5". We don't do this when measuring angles though (45 degrees is not 1/4 angle). I guess it makes sense that we've adopted it for time since we have used circles for so long to serve as a symbol of time. It's weird because I read an article on thoughtco the other day about how Babylonians may have memorized 2-59 squares to do their math which seems pretty incredible compared to what our average citizen can do mathematically. Does base 10 hold us back? We choose to represent a lot of things in computerland in base 16 (hexadecimal).
Time is interesting. We use a base 60 system with base 10 numerals to reference points in time. Why? I mean I know it is ancient, but that angles (0-360) are about the only places where this is used, and we don't even really acknowledge it's base 60. Is there no accurate base 10 way of measuring angles? I mean we have fractions which kind of get us where we need to be. We use this when referencing time. "It's quarter after 5". We don't do this when measuring angles though (45 degrees is not 1/4 angle). I guess it makes sense that we've adopted it for time since we have used circles for so long to serve as a symbol of time. It's weird because I read an article on thoughtco the other day about how Babylonians may have memorized 2-59 squares to do their math which seems pretty incredible compared to what our average citizen can do mathematically. Does base 10 hold us back? We choose to represent a lot of things in computerland in base 16 (hexadecimal).
@thatguyoverthere i think twelve is nice for easy division, factorises into 2, 3, 4 and 6 whereas ten only has 2 and 5.
hexadecimal is just 2^4, factorises into 2, 4 and 8 and no primes.
Yes this is actually mentioned in the article I was reading.
> The number of factors distinguishes the base 60 system from its base 10 counterpart, which likely developed from people counting on both hands. The former system uses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, and 60 for base 60, while the latter uses 1, 2, 5, and 10 for base 10. The Babylonian mathematics system may not be as popular as it once was, but it has advantages over the base 10 system because the number 60 “has more divisors than any smaller positive integer,” the Times pointed out.
https://www.thoughtco.com/why-we-still-use-babylonian-mathematics-116679
This is something I come around to thinking about every so often ever since I learned how to count the base 60 numbering system on one hand. 360 is the result of using both hands with multiplication, but this article and discussion of using decimal internet time are what spawned my current thought process.
I guess I'm just wondering if base 60 is better why we chose not to use it. It seems we might be better mathematicians if we took the time to learn how to express mathematics using a more advanced numbering system that still corresponds to the human body.
> The number of factors distinguishes the base 60 system from its base 10 counterpart, which likely developed from people counting on both hands. The former system uses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, and 60 for base 60, while the latter uses 1, 2, 5, and 10 for base 10. The Babylonian mathematics system may not be as popular as it once was, but it has advantages over the base 10 system because the number 60 “has more divisors than any smaller positive integer,” the Times pointed out.
https://www.thoughtco.com/why-we-still-use-babylonian-mathematics-116679
This is something I come around to thinking about every so often ever since I learned how to count the base 60 numbering system on one hand. 360 is the result of using both hands with multiplication, but this article and discussion of using decimal internet time are what spawned my current thought process.
I guess I'm just wondering if base 60 is better why we chose not to use it. It seems we might be better mathematicians if we took the time to learn how to express mathematics using a more advanced numbering system that still corresponds to the human body.
it also seems strange to just over lay base 10 symbols on a base 60 number system. I guess this is a product of really only ever learning base 10 for most people. Even when we express hex we do so using base 10 + some extra characters we agree can represent the higher values but are borrowed from our language symbols.
@thatguyoverthere how do you count base 60 on your fingers?
If you use the thumb to point at the 3 sections of each of the 4 other digits you can get to 12, doing that once for each finger gets you to 60. Using the other hand for multiplication can get you to 360.
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@thatguyoverthere yeah that's cool, not sure how I'd use it but it's cool
