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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Why is a sextant like it is?
From: Derrick Young
Date: 2004 Nov 18, 17:03 -0500
From: Derrick Young
Date: 2004 Nov 18, 17:03 -0500
Bill, To follow up on this discussion - the base 60 math appears to be an outgrowth of the Babylonian religious system. The number 12 was the number associated with one of the major deities, while 5 is the number associated with man. They apparently divided the day and night into equal parts - with 12 divisions in each portion, thus we would up with hours. While they did not divide each hour into smaller portions (minutes), it seems to be a fairly easy leap (12 mini-segments, each divided into 5 portions). Regardless of the reasons that it was developed, it has remained with up until today and we have recognized that it fits many different situations. This may be an old mathematician's day dream - but as a lot of engineering students have observed - it works. derrick