Why did ancient cultures (e.g. the Mesopotamians) use sexagesimal?

Upvote:6

In a era when decimal numbers didn't exist, but fractions did, 60 has many factors: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30 and 60. The factors of 10 are: 1, 2, 5 and 10.

When dividing quantities into smaller units it is easier and more useful to be able to divide them into the smaller quantities if a base of 60 is used instead of 10.

Fred 2872

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Source: stackoverflow.com

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