why's 60 seconds 1 minute?

Question

and 60 minutes 1 hour? WHY 60?

Answer 1

Most people take our time system for granted. If someone asks “What time is it?” there usually isn’t a lot of controversy about what system of time is being used. Nearly everyone worldwide uses a common system of time based on 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes per hour, and 60 seconds per minute. The only relativity that enters the picture is that the time is different depending on the time zone. So when it’s 8:00 am in New York, for example, it’s 1:00 pm in London.

The origins of our 24 hour clock go all the way back to the Egyptians and the Babylonians. The Egyptians divided the time from sunrise to sunset into ten hours of daylight. They also had two hours of twilight and twelve hours of night. This system goes back as far as 1300 B.C. The total is 24 hours per day, which we still have in our time-keeping systems today.

The origin of our minute and second goes back to the Babylonians. The Babylonians did their astronomical calculations in a base 60 system. The first fractional place in this base 60 system we now call a minute. The second fractional place in this system we now call a second.

It is amazing that, after 3300 years, we are still operating on a system of time that was invented long before technology, and 2600 years before the invention of mechanical clocks (around 1300).

http://www.flowresearch.com/Flowtime/flowtime.htm

Answer 2

It's an arbitrary number, chosen by humans a long time ago.

It's because of the ancient Sumerians, pretty much. They used a base 60 number system (whereas we use a base 10). Being the first human civilization, a lot of their mathematics were the first to come about, and were used by other and later civilizations (such as the babylonians). Some of their ways of doing things really stuck.

Thanks to them, we're stuck with 360 degrees in a circle, 60 seconds in a minute, etc. It's been that way since the Sumerians (around 8 or 9 thousand years), and no one seems to care to change it.

Answer 3

Also, 60 is a "convenient" number. 60 is divisible by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, etc. Since the ancient sumarians didn't have decimals or fractions, they favored using such convenient numbers. Another example: 12 is divisible by 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6, making it a more "convenient" number than 10, which is only divisible by 1, 2, and 5.

Answer 4

This all dates back to ancient Mesopotamia, where math was done on a base 6 system. Today, we count with a base 10 system. 60 was once as easy to use as 100 is today. Therefore, it's not a completely random number.

Answer 5

That was the system taught to the Sumerians by the alien astronauts from Sirius.

Answer 6

It is traditional. That is just the way we do it, and I don't think that we are going to stop.

Answer 7

oh man.............its like asking why do you have 2 eyes ,2 ears,2 hands ,etc

Answer 8

its old roman based. ask them

Answer 9

research will give you the answer.