Babylonian Use of Base 60

  I can conceive of two distinct reasons the Babylonians may have used base 60:

1.       Convenience when counting with hands. One can count up to 5 with one hand and then use the other to count groups of 6’s. In general, because our bodies offer several easy ways to count up to 5, counting in base 60 is aligned with the body’s natural ‘overflow’ number. Once we run out of things to count (fingers, toes, appendages…) we start again, leading naturally to base 60.

2.       60 is the smallest positive integer to have 12 factors. The highly composite nature of 60 makes it practical, as it can be broken into many kinds of smaller, intuitive portions. 

A bit of research suggests that point (2) above is the primary reason for the Babylonian use of base 60. It is noteworthy that although we’ve dropped base 60 from our number system, 60 is still found in many modern applications such as the measurement of time and angles.

Note: Accidently made this post on the wrong blog - shifting it here now