2007-02-07 22:57:24 · 8 answers · asked by ErwinS 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Other - Science
Our measurement of time comes from the Sumerians who counted not with 10's but with 60's. That's why we have 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour. The 24 hours come from the fact that they decided to allocate 12 hours to daylight and 12 hours to night. Note that 12 is 60 divided by 5 which was another important number to them.
2007-02-08 00:10:15 · answer #1 · answered by Gene 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Good question, because at the end of the day (no pun) the hour could have been defined arbitrarily to meet the needs of society regardless of the orbital frequency of the earth.
Enter (and blame) the ancients.
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.
So ptake it out on Ptolemy.....
2007-02-08 07:16:31 · answer #2 · answered by RWPOW 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Actually 24 is pretty easy to remember when you learn it.
The angle of a total circle at the centre is 360 degrees.
Hence the time is calibrated as 1 minute is 6 degrees. This makes it simpler as most of the clocks are circular.
2007-02-08 07:05:33 · answer #3 · answered by vatsa 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It's 24 hours because the earth rotates once per day, a full cycle is 24 hours - hence one day..
2007-02-08 07:01:57 · answer #4 · answered by stretch 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
That's how long it takes for the Earth to spin one revolution, creating night and day.
But why whoever invented the time format chose to divide that time into 24, rather than 10, I have no idea.
2007-02-08 07:03:53 · answer #5 · answered by slasher 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Earth completes one daynight cycle in 24hrs. if it was 10 hrs we would have been close to sun . Earth would have been a hot planet. 5 hrs day and 5hr night ..too fast wud have been the life. and for 100 hrs ..too far ..a cold planet..imagine working continously for 50 hrs in the day...a slow life ...a lot of patience..so its better to have 24hrs.
2007-02-08 07:14:50 · answer #6 · answered by Arch 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Has to do with longitude and relative to the rotation of the earth. Takes 24 hrs. (approximately 23h59m56s) for the earth to rotate once on its axis.
2007-02-08 07:08:04 · answer #7 · answered by david37863 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Earth completes one daynight cycle in 24hrs. so one day is 24 hours
2007-02-08 07:20:52 · answer #8 · answered by nishu 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋