Why does a day have 24 hours?

Answer 1

our time notation comes from the ancient Sumerians who counted in 12s. They divided the day and night into 12 hours each. An hour was not fixed as it is today and so, as the seasons progressed, and night and day lengthened and shortened, so the length of an individual hour would change. The hour itself was 60 minutes (5 x 12) The minute 60 seconds (again 5x12)

Answer 2

24 is an arbitrary but convenient way of dividing the day into manageable units. First there was only day and night (2 units), then each was divided in half (4 units), half again (8 units), and finally into thirds for a total of 24.

The reason it isn't 10 hours or 20 hours is that 10 is a clumsy number that is not easily divisible, but 12 is. There are 360 degrees in a circle instead of 100 or 1000 because 360 is divisible by practically everything, including 10, 12, 15, 20, 24, 90, etc.

360 is also a stupid choice because it's not a whole power of our number base. It's too bad we don't count by 12s, then maybe a circle could have 12 x 12 = 144 degrees (or in base-12 notation, 10 x 10 = 100) and maybe a day could consist of 144 hourlets, which happens to equal 10 minutes exactly.

That period of time would be sufficiently accurate for most daily activities. Imagine having to give just one number for an appointment or a show time - "I'll meet you at 30 (6:00 am), 31 (6:10 am), 32 (6:20 am), 33 (6:30 am)" and so on.

We use dozens all the time because counting by twelves is far more convenient than counting by tens. We only got stuck with tens because we happen to have ten fingers, not because it's the best way to count!

Answer 3

Convenience. Divide a day into four shifts. Divide each shift into some reasonable unit to measure the passage of time.

An even better question: Given a day has 24 hours, why do most clocks have only 12? Why are we still using them, and still using AM/PM? Are we incapable of counting to 24?

Answer 4

Time was created a long time ago.

In history - It was not the Eqyptians, but the Sumerians, and later the Babylonians who first gave us the divisions of the day into hours and the divsion of hours into minutes (and later seconds).

The Twelve signs of the Zodiac is the circle divided into 12 parts, but the "digit counting" on both hands gives us 12 + 12 (hours of day plus hours of night).

Answer 5

God noted as the sunshine day and the darkness he noted as night. And there grow to be night and there grow to be morning, a popular day. Genesis a million:5 Going from scriptural info evidently like one 24 hour era. although the scriptures do no longer qualify in the event that they are consecutive days. There could have been seven 24 hour days of introduction unfold over thousands and thousands of years we in simple terms do no longer understand and whats extra, it incredibly is not considerable to the message of the Bible.

Answer 6

To ask question like this. If it is 25 hrs a day also, people will ask questions like "Why does a day have 25 hrs?" :) Simple

Answers like -- Earth rotates its 360 degree axis in 24 hrs is meaning less, why 24??

Answer 7

Because it takes 24 hours for the earth to make one full rotation.

Answer 8

Srtictly speaking it doesn't as it takes either more than or less than 24 hours for the Earth to rotate on its axis.

; )

Answer 9

Because that is the time it takes Earth to spin 360 degrees.
I dont really know why 1 hour is 60 mins and 1 min is 60 sec...??

Answer 10

because it is the time it takes for the earth to rotate on its axis(it is actually 23 hours 11 minutes and 37 seconds)