Ever wondered why there are exactly 60 minutes in an hour? It’s a number we take for granted, but its origins stretch back thousands of years to some of the earliest civilizations!
Our story begins in ancient Mesopotamia, with the brilliant Sumerians and later, the Babylonians. These incredible civilizations, as far back as 3500 BC, used a unique counting system called “sexagesimal,” which is based on the number 60.
Why 60? Well, 60 is a fantastic number! It’s what mathematicians call a “superior highly composite number,” meaning it can be neatly divided by many other numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, and 30. This made calculations incredibly easy for them, especially in astronomy and geometry.
Some theories suggest this base-60 system might even come from counting on our hands! Imagine using your thumb to count the three segments on each of your other four fingers, giving you 12, then multiplying that by the five fingers on the other hand, leading to 60.
While the Babylonians gave us the 60-minute division, the ancient Egyptians contributed to the 24-hour day. They ingeniously divided daylight and nighttime into 12 parts each, often using sundials and observing stars.
Later, Greek astronomers like Hipparchus, around the 2nd century BCE, combined these systems. They applied the Babylonian base-60 divisions to the Egyptian concept of the 12-hour day, formalizing the hour into 60 minutes and each minute into 60 seconds.
So, every time you glance at a clock, you’re looking at a legacy over 5000 years old! The practicality of dividing 60 into so many even parts ensured this system stuck around, becoming the universal language of time we use today.