24 hours 60 minutes 60 seconds etc... Why?

Question

If everything else about us has pretty much been decimalized (as 100 is supposed to be easier to work with) e.g. Money (as in pound/shillings/pence... gone), Weights (pounds/stones... going) & Measurement (inches/feet/miles... going) and indeed numbers themselves! (roman numerals... long gone) etc... How come time itself has not yet been decimalized and why is it in the format that it is?

Ah... some people assume 24 hours as gospil - like it was always there! How was 24hours in a day concieved? Why not 6, 12, 60 or 120 hours in the day? They didn't know the earth was round then nor its size (or what size? KM or mile or other) nor that we circle the sun. Just plucked out of the air was it?

Answer 1

The origins of our current measurement system go back to the Sumerian civilization of approximately 2000 BCE. This is known as the Sumerian Sexagesimal System based on the number 60. 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour - and possibly a calendar with 360 (60x6) days in a year (with a few more days added on). Twelve also features prominently, with roughly 12 hours of day and 12 of night, and roughly 12 months in a year (especially in a 360 day year).

It is too ingrained in society and religion to change it.

Answer 2

There have been movements for decimal time: http://www.decimaltime.hynes.net/.
"From 1793-1795 the French republican government officially used decimal time of day, using analog clocks with decimal hour and minute hands. There were 10 hours in a day, 100 decimal minutes in an hour and 100 decimal seconds in a decimal minute, so 0.12345 day = 1:23:45. Although unpopular then and not used anywhere officially today, this is what is often referred to as "decimal time," and many decimal time proposals are based upon French decimal time. The hours were numbered 1-10, with 10 being midnight and 5 being noon. There was also a 10-day week, with the days numbered 1-10, which was part of the French Republican Calendar."

Answer 3

The Sumerian is the first people to use this system. Their priests made some kind of hourglass, filled with sand, but only have one side and a hole and a bucket below it. The priests measured the sands fall rate into a bucket in a day and divide the sand inside the bucket into 24 jars, so one jar of sand means an hour. They then further devide the sand inside the jar into 60 smaller cups, which mean a minute. They dont do the same with seconds using sands though, as it is not accurate enough. They measure the amount of water fall in the same time a cup of sand fall. Then they made smaller hourglass which use water and divide the cup of water into 60. The later civilisation dont bother making new measurement system of time, so they just copy the sumerian.

Answer 4

'cos the earth takes ~24 hours to rotate - hence the average lengths of day and night (12hours each @ the equator)

and now to quote wikipedia:

"The factor of 60 comes from the Babylonians who used factors of 60 in their counting system. However, the Babylonians did not subdivide their time units sexagesimally (except for the day). The hour had been defined by the ancient Egyptians as either 1/12 of daytime or 1/12 of nighttime, hence both varied with the seasons. Hellenistic astronomers, including Hipparchus and Ptolemy, defined the hour as 1/24 of a mean solar day"

safe :)

Answer 5

Im fairly sure they got the number of months in a year and the number of weeks in a month and days in a wek from lunar cycles (early calenedres where 13 months folowing lunar months rather than 12 as we have now) but im no usre why they decided to then split the days up into units of 24 - although i havnt researched it thouroughly i have heard the theory to do with the babylonians before.

Answer 6

I assume you mean 20 hour day, 50 minutes, 50 seconds, etc. Life is short enough as it is - surely you don't want to have less time than you already do?! (also, you could have 10 months in a year & 30 days in EVERY month). However, I think it may also have something to do with the sun & the moon, not decimalization.

Answer 7

DanE is right re the origins. One of the reasons we have kept it is the convenience, as you can split 60mins into halves, thirds, quaters, fifths, sixths and tenths and get whole numbers. 12 and 24 are similarly versatile.

Answer 8

24 hours in a day because it is 24,901 mi around the earth and we are spinning at 1000 mi an hour so it takes 24 hours for one rotation

Answer 9

the babalonions invented the way we use the numbers. they decided to use 60 as there were more factors to split it into (1,2,5,10,15 etc) than there were in 100 so that is why.

Answer 10

How come pizza has only 8 slices?