5 ms·

And 12 divides into 2, 3, 4 and 6. Base 12 is far superior to base 10. Those Babylonians weren’t stupid.

by simonh 3y ago

dclowd9901 3y ago
I was going to say: time is based on degrees of a circle, and 10 doesn’t work great for it. I’m not a fan of non-metric length measurement, but time seems to be a rather sensical usage of it.
- quicklime 3y ago
  Nothing about time is based on degrees of a circle, other than one specific way to visualise it - which many people don't use anymore and consider antiquated :)
  - mistercheph 3y ago
    Sundial; our notion of time is inextricably linked to the observed 180 degree arc path of the sun. The modern notion of time descends from that, and fails to stand on its own, despite silly attempts to define SI units via ad hoc correspondances.
- happymellon 3y ago
  > 10 doesn’t work great for it. Because the rest of circles are so logical, π is such a nice round number.
- arlort 3y ago
  The important aspect of the metric system is consistency, not the actual base. The base is 10 because it makes math easier in almost all modern languages Time is weird because its units are so necessarily arbitrary. We don't control (yet at least) the relationship between the rotation and revolution times of the planet, and both of those values are so very much essential It's also interesting that you almost never will need to convert between time units. In normal life you will maybe convert minutes to hours and days or months (which aren't even of uniform length) into weeks and years. But scientists or engineers will always work in "metric" units of seconds and astronomers / archaeologists will always work in "metric" units of years Compare this to mass and length/volume units, where a normal person will frequently need to traverse multiple orders of magnitude even just to bake a cake (grams to kilograms and milliliters to liters) and will have frequent experiences involving much higher orders (meters to kilometers every time they are following directions on their phones, or tons if they are loading a truck or buying a car)
groestl 3y ago
Also, while we have 10 fingers, we have 12 finger segments to count with (disregarding the thumb): https://www.earthdate.org/episodes/how-10-fingers-became-12-hours https://www.earthdate.org/episodes/how-10-fingers-became-12-...
- jacknews 3y ago
  base 6 works even more simply with two hands, 0-5 on each. And less symbols to learn, much smaller multiplication table, and so on.

And 12 divides into 2, 3, 4 and 6. Base 12 is far superior to base 10. Those Babylonians weren’t stupid.

by simonh 3y ago

And 12 divides into 2, 3, 4 and 6. Base 12 is far superior to base 10. Those Babylonians weren’t stupid.

I was going to say: time is based on degrees of a circle, and 10 doesn’t work great for it. I’m not a fan of non-metric length measurement, but time seems to be a rather sensical usage of it.

quicklime 3y ago
Nothing about time is based on degrees of a circle, other than one specific way to visualise it - which many people don't use anymore and consider antiquated :)
- mistercheph 3y ago
  Sundial; our notion of time is inextricably linked to the observed 180 degree arc path of the sun. The modern notion of time descends from that, and fails to stand on its own, despite silly attempts to define SI units via ad hoc correspondances.
happymellon 3y ago
> 10 doesn’t work great for it. Because the rest of circles are so logical, π is such a nice round number.
arlort 3y ago
The important aspect of the metric system is consistency, not the actual base. The base is 10 because it makes math easier in almost all modern languages Time is weird because its units are so necessarily arbitrary. We don't control (yet at least) the relationship between the rotation and revolution times of the planet, and both of those values are so very much essential It's also interesting that you almost never will need to convert between time units. In normal life you will maybe convert minutes to hours and days or months (which aren't even of uniform length) into weeks and years. But scientists or engineers will always work in "metric" units of seconds and astronomers / archaeologists will always work in "metric" units of years Compare this to mass and length/volume units, where a normal person will frequently need to traverse multiple orders of magnitude even just to bake a cake (grams to kilograms and milliliters to liters) and will have frequent experiences involving much higher orders (meters to kilometers every time they are following directions on their phones, or tons if they are loading a truck or buying a car)

groestl 3y ago

Also, while we have 10 fingers, we have 12 finger segments to count with (disregarding the thumb): https://www.earthdate.org/episodes/how-10-fingers-became-12-hours https://www.earthdate.org/episodes/how-10-fingers-became-12-...

jacknews 3y ago
base 6 works even more simply with two hands, 0-5 on each. And less symbols to learn, much smaller multiplication table, and so on.