Why is 1 hour = 60 minutes? Why not 100 minutes or anyother increment?

Question

I'm curious about the origin of the choice and who decided on it.

Brwnldi, you didn't understand the question, so stop hatin' ...Note: Upper caps = screaming... no need for that either

Answer 1

This all dates back to the Ancient Babylonians who liked to count in base 60. Ratios of 6, 12, 60, and 360 were seen by them as being 'round' numbers in the same way that we use base 10 and see 5, 10, 100 etc as useful numbers to divide things up into.

The Babylonians divided the sky into the 12 signs of the Zodiac, and a circle into 360 degrees. They divided the day and night each into 12 hours. The hour was split into 60 minutes and a minute into 60 seconds.

All these numbers have survived for 4000 years, despite the fact that we have changed our numbering system to base 10

Answer 2

100 Minutes In Hours

Answer 3

RE:
Why is 1 hour = 60 minutes? Why not 100 minutes or anyother increment?

Answer 4

The reason why is because for some reason we get out time from the ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia. They had a money system and time system of 60s. Their basic unit of currency was a SHEKEL. This was an ordinary slab of metal for trading purposes. Then 60 Shekels made up a MINA and 60 Minas made up a TALENT. Their weight system consisted of those same weights with the shekel at about a quarter of an ounce(about 4 grams), the mina at about a pound or just a little bit under(about 480 grams) and a talent comming in at about between 52 and 58 pounds(approximatley 30 kilograms). And their time was in sixties too.

The Greeks adopted the 60, 60 system with their currency. Their basic coinage was the OBOL-however 10 obol made up a DRACHMA(the daily wage of a labourer) and 60 Drachma made up a MINA and 60 Mina made up a TALENT. The Romans adopted the Greek currency system but put 100 Denarii per Mina(which was 4 Aureas-gold pieces) and then 60 Mina was a TALENT. Because the Romans had 25 Denarii per Aureii they had to even it out some how. The Drachma was worth 30 per cent of a Denarius(which was a days wage for a labourer at the empire's peak) The Romans kept the time and weight system and we get a hell of a lot from the Romans.

Hence we have the sixty sixty system. Sixty seconds, one minute and sixty minutes-one hour. We get this from the Sumerians who came down to Mesopotamia from the north in about 3,000 B.C. We also got the idea of shaving from them too, as their women found shaved faces much more attractive. Hope this helps.

Answer 5

1 hour 60 minutes 100 minutes anyother increment: https://tinyurl.im/e/why-is-1-hour-60-minutes-why-not-100-minutes-or-anyother-increment

Answer 6

Why not, indeed. After the French Revolution, the Republican Government brought in a new decimal time system with 10 new hours per day, 100 new minutes per hour, and 100 new seconds per minute. Read all about it at the web page below.

Apparently, it has not caught on . . . but they tried.

Answer 7

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Think I've seen though this. It takes 1 cat 100 minutes to catch one mouse. Therefore it will take 7 cats 100 minutes to catch 7 mice It would be the same with 45 cats to catch 45 mice, would still be 100 minutes

Answer 8

Adding to the "Best Answer": Why would Babylonians settle on 60 and 360? It turns out the the sun is approximately 1 degree wide. Early Babylonians would have noticed that the sky is made up of 180 sun-widths, and the entire trajectory around the earth can be intuited to be 360 sun-widths.

Answer 9

I think you already have a good answer but might I add that time in essence is an elsuive concept and it is somethign we have created to determine the proximity of past events.....so one hour could have 100 minutes and in fact, in some ancient cultures, a work week had 8 days

Answer 10

The whole thing involves geometry and just looking at a GPS unit will give you clues. The earth is divided into longitudes and latitudes, but if you are not directly on a cross where the lines meet, your position is measured in minutes and seconds. I will leave it to you to figure the rest out. Ask a Surveyor.