#chocster

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

full socketBOT
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Please be patient

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grand marlin
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To clarify some more, why don't we see the base system below 60?

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And is it because of the internet link to time keeping

grand marlin
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So did the numbers below 60 used to operate on a base 20 system?

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It would make sense if, as precise time keeping became possible and significantly more important, the numbers relating to it were simplified but the rest were kept as they were

coral talon
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Huitante*, not octante (it exists but is extremely rare)
And they don't exist in most french dialects

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Septante and nonante are relatively common, huitante is pretty much just switzerland (belgium still says quatre-vingts)

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And octante more or less doesn't exist in comparison

coral talon
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Apparently no one actually knows but their best assumption was that they found it easier to calculate larger numbers in 20s

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Kind of like if we suddenly switched to a base 5 system we'd have a harder time understanding 18x5 versus 9x10

eager wadi
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Important note: French has historically used base 10 and base 20, but the 60 seconds in a minute thing relates to the Babylonians who used base 60

grand marlin
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Very interesting

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Thank you for the effort! @eager wadi @coral talon

grand marlin
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Related

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It seems like I was on the right track, but the advent of the base 60 was much earlier than I had assumed

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And was more significant astronomically than anything else

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Though I wonder if it was in common use then

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The article makes it sound like it was really only mathematicians and scientists who used the base 60