this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2026
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Honestly a great case for "I have no idea why we chosen 60 as a random ass base for time "
Also im aware that base is not the proper term in this case since the base is still 10, but I have not idea how you would call the switch to the bigger unit treshhold
I’ve always assumed it’s because of the usefulness in its divisibility, with 60 able to be subdivided evenly in halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, and sixths, and because 24 is just 12x2 and 60 is just 12x5, that remains the case (save for fifths) for all subdivisions of the day in its 60/60/24 configuration.
My guess is that it’s simply an issue of working with something like a day, defined by cosmic forces rather than human sensibilities or control, where you don’t always get something that can be decimalized and still have useful units of time. I’ve done zero research on the actual reason, though, so that’s just a guess.
That's essentially the correct answer:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexagesimal
Oooh Sexagesimal. That's hot.
Don't look at me while I'm learning about sexagesimals
Also why a circle is 360, lots whole number divisors.
Actually "base" is entirely the correct term in this case. The first group to write down a really systematic method for timekeeping were the Sumerians, and they used base-60 math. This worked really well with solar and lunar cycles, which were important for crop planting, and with astronomical studies (mapping the stars had major applications for both navigation and religion, so it was culturally significant). Empires that came after the Sumerians copied and expanded their system, so it eventually spread to everyone.
Fun fact you can count to 12 on one hand and 60 on two hands,bits how the Babylonians traded.
Is it possible to learn this power?
Edit: I can count to 9 on one hand and 99 on two hands. This is superior when using two hands, but 12 on one hand?
You can count to 31 on one hand and 1023 on two hands if you get really good at counting and adding with binary
That is true! But I’m bad at recognizing the numbers (except four 🖕) once I’ve counted them. The 1-99 method (fingers on one hand are ones and thumb is 5, fingers on the other hand are tens and thumb is 50) is much easier to interpret.
One of the many reasons I made the switch.
Each finger is divided into 3 parts, tip, middle and base. You use your thumb on the same hand to count the finger part by touching it. Index tip is 1, middle finger tip is 4, ring middle is 8, pinkie base is 12.
So using just one hand, you could keep count of say, bags of wheat that you're handing to your customers with the other hand.
Now bring your other hand into play, and you curl one finger into your fist each time you reach 12 on the other hand. 4 fingers plus the thumb is 5, 5*12 is 60.
In theory you could go higher using finger segments on both hands, but the Babylonians liked the number 60, it had a lot of factors. Divides without remainders by 2, 3, 4 5, 6, 10, 12. That's where we get 12 hour clocks from. 6*60=360, we get degrees of a circle. I could go on. 60 is just a really great number.
Eye of Horus fractions are another really cool way to represent mathematical concepts in a single compact glyph.
3 phalanges (each bone in your finger) per finger, 4 fingers.
With that you could get to 168 on two hands, I think.
There was an attempt to convert to decimal and use 100 minutes in an hour, but this failed and it was reverted back. https://somethingmarvelousblog.wordpress.com/2017/07/18/the-best-of-time-the-worst-of-time-the-failed-french-experiment-of-decimal-time/
There was also a great proposal to use kiloseconds.
We already use 15 minutes (16.67 minutes = 1ksec) a lot in regular speech. My language has a word for it (kvarter) which is used all the time.
There used to be cool website listing all the benefits but it's been down for a few years :(
I'm assuming your language's word for it comes from "quarter" meaning a forth of the total. In this case the total being an hour.
People like give shit to the US for not using the metric system ("you have 12 inches in a foot and 5,280 feet in a mile? how do you even remember that?") but see no irony in using a random ass base for time ("it's easy you just have 60 minutes in an hour and 24 hours in a day.")
I actually developed a metric time for that reason, alongside with an International Fixed Calendar using the Holocene Era. It works on a libreoffice spreadsheet. The calendar itself isn't metric, but it's highly regular, and that makes it nice imo. The spreadsheet auto-updates the time once you edit the spreadsheet (put random character somewhere, remove). But I sadly don't know how to put that on a working site or whatever, or as software...
I picked the Holocene Era because it's globally actually relevant, and it's not tied to a controversial figure (2026 being tied to Christ).
Basically, it's right now, according to my calendar:
Year: 11'726
Month: 1
Week: 2
Day of year: 12
Hour: 8
Minute: 1
How does the calendar work?
There are 364 days in a year. There are 13 months of 28 days each, divided in weeks of 7 days. There are two additional days, New Year's Eve and Leap Day. They don't belong to any day of the week. (Religious groups that object, can just have an extra day of prayer, or use their own calendar). The extra month can be called Midsummer, or Solsticy. (Or just name the months "first, second month" and days likewise).
The first day after New Year's Eve is the first day that days lengthen again in the North. That day will always be a Monday, starting the year proper.
How does the day work?
There are 100'000 seconds (instead of 86,400).There are 10'000 tenths.
There are 1'000 minutes.
There are 100 quarters.
There are 10 hours.
And that is 1 day.
Left is new unit, right their old equivalent:
second: 0.864 old second
tenth: 8.64 old seconds
minute: 1.44 old minute (1 min, 26.4 sec)
quarter: 14.4 old minutes (14 min, 24 sec)
hour: 2.4 old hours (2 hr, 24 min)
It works out relatively niftily, to be honest.
Yes to the days of the year - only sensible way to do it. Added bonus that the first day of each month is always a Monday, which makes it easy to calculate days-of-week in your head. Also, two days holiday at new year every leap year, yeah.
Metric seconds is a bit trickier. Most units of measurement have 'time' in them in some way.
The SI is obviously that way - length is defined as metres per second of light in vacuum, mass by fixing the Planck constant in kilogram metres squared per second. But Imperial units, besides the fact that they're usually defined in law in terms of the SI, also have a lot of their derived units include time - mph and psi for instance.
Unless you're wanting to redefine basically every unit of measurement in your new system, then you need to stick with the second, which means you're stuck with ~86400 seconds per day, because that's how fast the world turns, and there's no particularly better way to subdivide it.
Although if your new calendar could also fix the damned mess that is time zones at the same time, I'd be willing to give it a shot.
It comes from the ancient Summerians (through the not-quite-as-ancient Babylonians) directly from their use of base 60 (for some things - they used 10 and 12 for others). So I think you're good.
The base 12 comes from the number of divisions from your fingers, minus the thumb: you can count to 12 on each hand :D
According to this article it comes from the first sundials used by the ancient Egyptians which divided the day up into 12 equal parts and then the night being divided up into 12 equal parts from the movement of 12 particular stars.
The the Babylonians were the ones who divided those 24 hours up into 60s thanks to their numbering system being base 60.
And then it just sort of stuck? The only large scale attempt to shift to a different numbering system for time and dates was in revolutionary France but it never really expanded beyond that and once the railways and telegraph required a standardised system of time internationally and things became fixed where we are now.