Definition:Sexagesimal System/Historical Note
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Historical Note on Sexagesimal System
From as early as $3500$ BCE, the Sumerians were using a sexagesimal system for certain purposes, based on divisions of $10$ and $6$:
- $1, 10, 60, 600, 3600, 36 \, 000, \ldots$
This sequence is A281863 in the On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (N. J. A. Sloane (Ed.), 2008).
For conventional business purposes, they used a decimal system.
Their $60$-based system was adopted by the Babylonians, who used it for mathematical and astronomical purposes.
As $60 = 5 \times 12 = 6 \times 10$, it has the advantages of both the decimal (base $10$) and duodecimal (base $12$) systems.
In particular, the ancient division of the sky into the $12$ signs of the zodiac fits the sexagesimal system far better than a decimal system.
Sources
- 1986: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers ... (previous) ... (next): $12$
- 1986: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers ... (previous) ... (next): $60$
- 1992: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Puzzles ... (previous) ... (next): The Babylonians
- 1997: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): $12$
- 1997: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): $60$
- 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): number system
- 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): number system