Base 60 and Ancient Babylon

Thousands of years before modern calculators, ancient Babylonian scholars developed one of history’s most remarkable number systems. Instead of counting primarily in tens, they counted in sixties. At first this seems strange. Why 60? The answer lies partly in flexibility. The number 60 has many divisors: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, and 30 all divide it evenly. Fractions become easier to represent cleanly. Long before decimal notation became dominant, Babylonian mathematics already possessed impressive sophistication. Astronomers tracked planetary motion. Merchants handled trade calculations. Engineers measured land and construction. And astonishingly, traces of Babylon still surround modern life today. There are 60 seconds in a minute. 60 minutes in an hour. 360 degrees in a circle. Every clock quietly carries ancient arithmetic inside it. The survival of base 60 reveals something fascinating about civilization: Ideas can outlive empires. Babylon itself faded long ago. Its kings disappeared. Its cities crumbled. Yet its mathematics still governs how humanity measures time thousands of years later. Sometimes numbers become cultural fossils — ancient thoughts preserved invisibly inside everyday life.