Why are there 60 minutes in an hour?

You know that in a day we have 24 hours and that each hour corresponds to 60 minutes, each counting 60 seconds. Today, we will discover the origin of this distribution of time as well as an attempt to change this system!

Introduction

In life there are things that are and will remain as they are by habit because it is far too complicated to change them. This is particularly the case with the structure of time. If you do accounting, time is not measured in base 60, and that is precisely why chronographs on base 100 appeared to measure time on a base 100.

Explanation: An hour and a half of work will be written as 1.5 and 1h10 will be: 1.17. The base 100 is more commonly called the hour in decimal.

All this to say that this system is not very practical, so where does it come from?

The influence of Babylon

This fascinating civilization is at the origin of many things, including this system. 4,000 years ago, the Babylonians settled in Mesopotamia used a base 60 for their accounting. It is a number that is highly divisible. It can be divided by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20 and 30 without leaving a remainder. This property makes it very practical for calculations and fractions. They also used this same base for hours and minutes.

Although we are certain that the Babylonians divided time in this way, the origin of this sexagesimal division is only speculation, we have very little trace of this civilization.

Were there other bases for telling time?

Shortly after the revolution, the deputies of the first republic decided to change the calendar and also the division of time. Thus a week now had 10 days. Each day had 10 hours, which themselves had 100 minutes and thus, a minute had 100 seconds.

The revolutionary calendar was abandoned by Napoleon in 1805, but this new time system was abandoned much more quickly. Indeed, the French were too used to this division into 24 hours, and so in 1795 the distribution of daily time returned to what it was.

Conclusion

We only have theories about the origin of this division, but what we know for sure is that it is not about to change!

However, what can change is your way of reading the time, for example with a single-hand watch! If this intrigues you, we explain everything about these watches here !

Image credits:

Photo shows decimal time: Watchesandculture.org