Speculative Phase:
When I was in India, my grandparents always fascinated me by telling me their experiences about counting numbers and recognising time by looking at the sun and stars. Because they were uneducated, they do not know any math conversions or terminology. They were only familiar with dozen because they used a thumb to count on each finger. Each finger represents three different parts and total we have 12 parts. I think 60 represents times because each hour has 60 minutes, and each minute has 60 seconds. It is easier to count by skipping by 10 rather than skipping by 60.
Research Phase:
After doing research, I came to know the history that Babylonian mathematics passed by Sumerians, who originated base 60 as a sexagesimal system. They used base 60 in geometry, counting, and measuring time. I also find out that they used 60 because it is easy to break into the fraction because of its divisors (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, 60).
References:
Gill, N.S. (2020, August 27). Babylonian Mathematics and the Base 60 System. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/why-we-still-use-babylonian-mathematics-116679
Sweeney, J.F. Why Base 60. Retrieved from https://vixra.org/pdf/1407.0062v1.pdf
How fascinating to hear about your grandparents! Even though they might not have had a lot of schooling, they seem educated to me in their knowledge of the heavens and of ways to calculate using our own bodies too. PS: I'll show you a way to format your posts so that they are not running off the page...
ReplyDelete