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==Babylonian counting==

==Babylonian counting==

Today we count in base ten, but the Babylonians counted in base 60. This may sounds cumbersome but there is an intriguing explanation of how this might have worked. The prevalent theory is that Babylonians counted the bones of each finger on one hand using the thumb on the same hand as a pointer. Doing this, you start at the top of your little finger and count down the bones 1...2...3.. then move on to the next finger 4....5....6.. then the next 7....8...9 and finally the index finger 10...11...12. Having got to 12 you count this off as one '12' on the other hand and go back to the beginning. You do this five times, with twelve bones per time, meaning you can count to 60 on two hands without having to write anything down. You could also count each '12' on each finger bone of the spare hand, allowing you to count to 144 easily.  

Today we count in base ten, but the Babylonians counted in base 60. This may sound cumbersome but there is an intriguing explanation of how this might have worked. The prevalent theory is that Babylonians counted the bones of each finger on one hand using the thumb on the same hand as a pointer. Doing this, you start at the top of your little finger and count down the bones 1...2...3.. then move on to the next finger 4....5....6.. then the next 7....8...9 and finally the index finger 10...11...12. Having got to 12 you count this off as one '12' on the other hand and go back to the beginning. You do this five times, with twelve bones per time, meaning you can count to 60 on two hands without having to write anything down. You could also count each '12' on each finger bone of the spare hand, allowing you to count to 144 easily.  

This old Babylonian numbering system is likely to be the reason why we still have unusual base systems for things like time (hours, minutes and seconds), 24 hours in the day, the old Imperial measurement system etc. The beauty of this system is that numbers which are multiples of 12 (such as 24, 60, and 144) are all also divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6, whereas 10 is only divisible by 2 and 5 - so it's easier to count halves, quarters and thirds in a base 12 system. <ref> http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Babylonian_mathematics.html </ref>

This old Babylonian numbering system is likely to be the reason why we still have unusual base systems for things like time (hours, minutes and seconds), 24 hours in the day, the old Imperial measurement system etc. The beauty of this system is that numbers which are multiples of 12 (such as 24, 60, and 144) are all also divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6, whereas 10 is only divisible by 2 and 5 - so it's easier to count halves, quarters and thirds in a base 12 system. <ref> http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Babylonian_mathematics.html </ref>

==References==

==References==