2006-10-04 06:23:03 · 12 answers · asked by dr.vinod rajan 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Earth Sciences & Geology
The custom goes as far back as the Babylonians, who liked to divide units by 12 because groups of 12 are easily divided into halves, thirds, or fourths. Originally an hour was 1/12 of the time between sunrise and sunset, so summer hours were longer than winter hours. Later, when people wanted to express times at night, it was natural to divide the night into 12 hours as well, making 24 hours in the day. it also works out well that we have 24 time Zones which is also divisible into 360 (degrees in a circle).
2006-10-04 06:34:15 · answer #1 · answered by F-A 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
there are 24 hours in a day because the earth takes only 24 hours to rotate around itself and not 30 or 20 or 22 hours.
2006-10-07 03:56:18 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The roots of using 24 hours in a day are pretty ancient, like ancient babalonians, I think. They liked numbers like 12, 24, 60, 360, because they are easily divisible by many numbers - 1, 2, 3, 4 for the first two, etc. They didn't actually have the concept of division, and they certainly didn't have fractions or decimals! So using numbers like those made any calculations more convenient. It's a lot easier to split 12 into 4 equal segments than it is to split 10 into 4 equal segments.
2006-10-04 13:36:46 · answer #3 · answered by kris 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The idea of 12 hours to the day and 12 to the night comes from ancient Babylon. It is not possible to say why they decided on 12 but it is possible that this was because they counted to the base 60 and the sun moves through 720 of it's own diameters during the day. The base 60 accounted for 60 minutes to the hour and 60 seconds to the minute.
Why 60? There are lots of different ideas. My favorite is that by using four fingers, each with three joints, on one hand and four fingers on the other, you can count from 1 to 60 with ease.
2006-10-04 14:32:04 · answer #4 · answered by Stewart H 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is our unit of one day. day is the time taken by earth to revolve around its axis that is if sun rises at 6:00 am then you can see the next sun rise exactly after 24 Hours i.e next day
i.e Duration Between two SunRise or Sun Set is the day
Mathematical Proof:Approx
Circumference of earth :30000 Kms Equatorial
velocity of sun : 111 Kms i.e 4 degree = 1 minute
so 30000/111 = 24 hours =1 day Approx
since distance /velocity
2006-10-06 10:20:21 · answer #5 · answered by karthick r 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Brilliant!
How did u manage to find such a stupid question??
If 24 is not your lucky number, Use your brain and create a gadget to control the spinning speed of earth. then you'll get the desired hours per day!!!
2006-10-08 04:09:28 · answer #6 · answered by Evilslayer 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In some countries in Europe, they have gone decimal and there are only 10 hours in a day.
2006-10-06 09:20:07 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Has to do with how long it takes the earth to make one complete turn around its axis. Also the moon effects the length of the doy.
2006-10-04 13:27:42 · answer #8 · answered by eltel2910 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
because earth takes 24hours to revolve around the sun once........ This duration is considered to be one day.
2006-10-06 02:01:36 · answer #9 · answered by DUNITE 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
because 24 is easily divided in many even parts like 2,4,6,8.......
2006-10-04 13:46:27 · answer #10 · answered by towernarinder 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋