Babylon's Base-60 Legacy

The Babylonians inherited a sexagesimal (base-60) number system from the Sumerians, who used it as early as 3500 BCE, and it became central to their astronomy and mathematics. Because 60 has many divisors, they broke hours into 60 minutes and each minute into 60 seconds, a system that proved remarkably practical. Today, scientists, navigators, and everyday people still use that same base-60 division for time, angles, and coordinates, from a legacy that stretches back millennia.

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