3 ms·
Units of time are specifically chosen to have 5, 2, and 3 as factors. Why not 4?
by TekMol 9y ago
Units of time are specifically chosen to have 5, 2, and 3 as factors.
Why not 4?
- tehlike 9y ago4=2^2?
- greenleafjacob 9y agoI think that is fair as well. 60/4=15 but 30/4 is not a whole number.
- gerdesj 9y agoNo it isn't but a quarter of a half hour is still understandable and is seven and one half minutes which is 7' 30". The ancient Babylonian idea of using 60 (and 360 for angles) is absolute genius. If you think about it, it is a bit weird but makes so much sense working in base 60. We all do it all of the time.
- collinmanderson 9y agoI believe 360 for angles came from 365 days in a year.
- jacquesm 9y agoBecause you want prime factors.
- arnarbi 9y ago60 is indeed handy since it divides into 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. 30 would be much less convenient. Better to drop the 5 (as evidenced by 12 and 24) I think the gp just generalized a bit to much. Units of time weren't chosen for those (prime) factors. People had simply figured out long time ago that a dozen is a nice round number.