this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2024
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I hate the idea of metric time (for a lot of use cases metric is still awesome).
12 and 60 can be easily divided by 2, 3, 4, 6. 60 also by 5 and 10. Even for 8 it's still kind of easy.
For 10 or 100 division is easy for 2, 5 and 10 and okay-ish for 4.
The 12/60 (and 360 degrees of a circle) are such an elegant system!
We should "just" switch to base-6 (or maybe 12) first
AFAIK the system goes back to the old Babylonians who had a base-60 system subdivided into 5 times 12. 5 times 12 could easily be counted using your thumb to count the 12 knuckles on the other fingers and the 5 fingers of the other hand.
I mean, how amazing is counting like that! I only learned to count to 10 with my fingers. I love the base-10 for its simplicity but base-60, subbase-12 is the shit :D
Even easier and more comfortable - count the pads instead of the knuckles. You can count to 12 with one hand, or 144 with two
You are right! English is not my first language and I thought I was talking about the pads. My bad! Yours is the best way!
If only we had 6 digits per hand as standard, basic maths would be so much easier for everyone
We do, base 12 comes from 5 fingers and a fist. It was used by traders for the longest time.
makes sense in a world without much fractions or the decimal system. You want to get the most divisors for your buck.
IMHO especially in a setting like time where fractions are very common (like "half an hour"), being able to represent fractions with whole numbers is very convenient.
Get better at math and theres no problem.
Thank you ! Last time I tried to explain this on Lemmy, I wrote my longest comment ever. I'm gonna use you much better explanation next time.