why is time 1 to 60 and not 1 to 100?

Answer 1

From wikipedia:

Originally, the second was known as a "second minute", meaning the second minute (i.e. small) division of an hour. The first division was known as a "prime minute" and is equivalent to the minute we know today.

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. Sexagesimally subdividing this mean solar hour made the second 1/86,400 of a mean solar day. Hellenistic time periods like the mean synodic month were usually specified quite precisely because they were calculated from carefully selected eclipses separated by hundreds of years—individual mean synodic months and similar time periods cannot be measured. Nevertheless, with the development of pendulum clocks keeping mean time (as opposed to the apparent time displayed by sundials), the second became measurable. The seconds pendulum was proposed as a unit of length as early as 1660 by the Royal Society of London. The duration of a beat or half period (one swing, not back and forth) of a pendulum one metre in length on the earth's surface is approximately one second.[2]

Answer 2

We have the Sumerians to thank for this. Their number system was sexagesimal which is base 60 (in the same way that decimal is base 10).

Answer 3

lol it is 60 because the based it on the way the earth rotates. it takes 24hrs for the earth to rotate and there are so many kilometers it has to go and it goes at a certain rate.. that rate makes it take 24hrs. they had to decide a way to split up the time


i think thats right

Answer 4

time was based on the babylonian set time
and they used base 12

Answer 5

maybe becuase 100 is too long? or something